Dominant Ypraus, Bossche take pole positions in Sardinia

Gulf Today, Sports Reporter

Estonian Jasmiin Ypraus, Belgian Quinten Bossche and Frenchman Francois Medori secured hard-earned pole positions in the Ski Ladies GP1, Ski Division GP1 and Runabout GP1 categories after a thrilling action at the Regione Sardegna Grand Prix of Italy in Olbia on Friday.

A massive field of 167 racers from 30 countries tested officials and the timetable to the full and the outcome was a sensational spectacle of racing across numerous race classes.

Current championship leader Ypraus was the class of the Ski Ladies GP1 division and earned a comfortable pole position from former champion Emma-Nellie Ortendahl.

Ypraus said: “The qualifying was actually perfect I have to say. It felt very good on the ski, effortless. Q1 and Q2 wer4e maybe a bit different but it was good to go full speed. It wasn’t as wavey as it was in the practice in the morning. That made a difference but the girls were still fast. It was a lot of fun.”

A late lap of 1min 35.453sec enabled Belgian championship leader Quinten Bossche to snatch pole position from Morgan Poret in Ski Division GP1. The Belgian said: “To be honest I had problems with my ski and they are not resolved yet. The throttle shuts off and I have to keep it open all the time. It was very difficult for me to go out there and ride but I managed to make pole position. But the mechanics are going to have a long night to figure out what’s wrong.”

Defending World Champion Medori set an unbeatable opening time of 1 min 30.870sec to snatch pole position from Estonian Mattias Siimann and joint series leader Samuel Johansson. Medori said: “It was very good, the first time in Q1 and Q2. Pole position. Maybe my last pole position was 12 years ago so I am really happy. But this is just the beginning. We don’t score points on pole position so we need to stay focused on Motos 1 and 2 this weekend.”

Pole positions in the Ski GP3 and GP4, Runabout GP4 and GP4 Ladies, Ski GP2 and Runabout GP2 categories fell to Hungarian Csongor Jaszai, Frenchman Baptiste Calmels, the Italian duo of Davide Pontecorvo and Arianna Urlo and Estonia’s Mattias Reinass and Mattias Siimann.