Friday, 5 September, IBIZA: Two contrasting but tightly contested
qualifying sessions saw France’s Jeremy Perez and America’s Chris
MacClugage grab the advantage over their rivals and will start heat 1 of
the Mediterranean Grand Prix from Pole Position.

Runabout’s Championship leader Perez carried the form that gave him the
win-double and GP title in Italy into the first 15 minute session,
topping the time sheets in practice and easing through Q1 in third place
behind Teddy Pons and Cyrille Lemoine to set himself up to go for the
Pole in Q2.

The 27-year-old from Lambesc then immediately seized the advantage with
a time of 1:14.72s on his first flying lap around the 22-pin, 1.7km
circuit off Playa D’en Bossa to grab his first Pole of the season.

Pons, who sits in second place in the points table just three behind
Perez, topped the time sheets in Q1 but was unable to find the pace to
steal past his countryman, missing out by just three-tenths of a second.
Italy’s Mattia Fracasso improved his performance in the final session
to go third quickest, but was three seconds adrift of the top two.

World Champion Yousef Al Abdulrazzaq, back on the tour after missing
the last race through injury, first had to get through pre-qualifying to
reduce the overall number of riders to 25, which he did comfortably,
but was missing the pace of his number one race bike managing fourth in
both Q1 and Q2.

Ski qualifying produced yet another intriguing duel between MacClugage
and Jeremy Poret, the two rivals trading times and swapping places
throughout, the American getting the upper hand in the first session
ahead of Portugal’s Tiago Sousa, with Poret in third.

In the final ten minute session, the two went head-to-head from the
green flag; Poret led MacClugage round for the first flying lap but it
was the American who grabbed the provisional pole with a time of
1:22.08s. Poret then hit back to go quicker posting his best, 1:20.99
which looked to be enough, but the determined MacClugage then stole the
Pole on his last run as the clock counted down, with a 1:20.18.

Nacho Armillas was by far the strongest of the Spanish riders, matching
his best qualifying off the year going third fastest ahead of an
impressive outing by Morgan Poret with Sousa in fifth.

Estelle Poret was the best of the Ladies finishing in 15^th spot out of a starting line-up of 24, ahead of Championship leader Jennifer Menard, with Marta Sorrerntino in 21^st spot ahead of Spain’s Sandra Fernandez.

Qualifying – Runabout:

1. J Perez (fra) - 1:14.72s

2. T Pons (fra) - 1:15.05s

3. M Fracasso (ita) - 1.18.15

4. Y Al Abdulrazzaq - 1:18.27s

5. C Lemoine (fra) - 1.18.28s

Qualifying – Ski:

1. C MacClugage (usa) - 1:20.18s

2. J Poret (fra) - 1:20.99s

3. N Armillas (esp) - 1:23.94s

4. M Poret (fra) - 1:24.48s

5. T Sousa (por) - 1: 25.17s

Sunday, 7 September, IBIZA: Teddy Pons and Chris MacClugage completed
the perfect weekend to win Mediterranean Grand Prix titles in their
respective categories after taking their second heat wins, with the
Ladies title going to Spain’s Sandra Fernandez and the Freestyle to Rok
Florjancic.

It was a second impressive performance by Pons who first had to fend
off an early challenge from Sweden’s Lars Sebastian Akerblom and then
from lap 8 of 17 his main Championship rival, Jeremy Perez.

Despite the constant pressure from Perez, Pons held on to win by five
seconds, today’s result moving him seven points clear in the
Championship standings, with Akerblom unable to match and stay with the
pace of the front two but coming home for his best result on the UIM-ABP
tour in third and take third overall.

Yousef Al Abdulrazzaq and Francois Medori enjoyed their own personal
tussle, Medori getting ahead on lap five, Abdulrazzaq getting fourth
place back on lap 16, Alejandro Molina the first Spanish rider to take
the chequered flag completing the top six.

In Ski it was another brilliant start and dominant performance by the
American MacClugage whose second win of the weekend over arch-rival
Jeremy Poret has moved him into second place and closed the gap in the
Championship standings to 16 points.

MacClugage was able to control the race from the front, running out the
winner by 11 seconds with Poret unable to respond and more focussed on
having to fend off the attentions of Spain’s Nacho Armillas.

France’s Steven Loiodice was another to produce one of his best
showings with a steady run in fourth finishing ahead of a spirited
showing by Alberto Monti, moving up from 13^th to fifth, Croatia’s Tomaz Kete completing the top six.

In Ski Ladies, Championship leader Jennifer Menard took the heat win
over Fernandez and Sorrentino, but it was Fernandez who claimed the
title thanks to her win in heat 1, with Rok Florjancic maintaining his
perfect record and unbeaten in 11 Grand Prix, brother Nac taking second
over Roberto Mariani.  

Thursday, 18 September:  World titles in all four categories in the
UIM-ABP Class Pro Aquabike World Championship will be decided at the
Grand Prix of China, 3-4 October, on the River Liu in Liuzhou, the final
event of what has been an enthralling and entertaining season.

Whatever the result in Runabout a new Champion will emerge with
defending Champion Yousef Al Abdulrazzaq raising the white flag and
missing the last event after a somewhat disastrous title defence. He
failed to score points in Qatar missed round 2 in Italy through injury
but salvaged some pride with a third and a fourth in Ibiza.

The race for the title is a two way fight between Teddy Pons and Jeremy
Perez, Pons holding a slender seven point advantage over his
countryman. Both have won heats and both have won GP titles this year
and now go head to head in a winner takes all decider.

On paper and mathematically Qatar’s Mohammed Al Heidus can still win,
but it will need Pons and Perez to suffer some sort of complete meltdown
and fail to post points and Al Heidus to win both heats.

In Ski it is between the current leader Jeremy Poret and the man
snapping at his heels Chris MacClugage. It is a fascinating scenario;
Poret lifted the GP title in Qatar and has a 16 point cushion, but
MacClugage is the man inform and in the ascendancy winning the last tree
heats and two GPs, but Poret knows that he just has to finish second to
his American rival in both heats to clinch his third World title.

With Tiago Sousa another absentee in China the door is open for veteran racer Alberto Monti to close out third place.

Points’ leader Jennifer Menard looks to be on course to win in Ski
Ladies but still has to be wary of young Estelle Poret, but the winner
in Spain Sandra Fernandez Rodriguez may well hold the key if she takes
points away from either or both of the front runners.

If Rok Florjancic maintains his perfect record and wins heat 1 he is
the Champion again, his only rival is brother Nac. What everyone would
like to see from ‘the Rok’ is the perfect score of 100. He has come
close posting 98.5 and the reality of doing it is well within his grasp.

*Jennifer Menard wins to move to within a point of world title

Saturday, 4 October, LIUZHOU (China): Jeremy Poret is just four points
away from winning a third Ski GP1  World title after a breath taking
last corner win over arch rival Chris MacClugage in race 1 of the Grand
Prix of China.

The result extends Poret’s Championship lead to 21 with just 25 available going into this afternoon’s final race of the season.

Poret conceded to pole sitter MacClugage from the start and trailed him
for 10 laps, when a mistake by the American allowed him too close to
within a couple of seconds, then snatching the win on the final corner
of the last lap with MacClugage taking the penalty buoy.

Third place went to Spaniard Nacho Armillas.

In the race for the Ladies title Jennifer Menard’s fifth win of the
season moves her to within a point of the World Championship after
beating rival Estelle Poret, with Sandra Rodriguez Fernandez third. 

Saturday, 4 October, LIUZHOU (China): Teddy Pons, Jeremy Poret and
Jennifer Menard capped a near perfect weekend in Liuzhou for France,
celebrating a famous World Championship hat-trick in Runabout, Ski and
Ski Ladies at the Grand Prix of China.

Five years after winning his first World title in Liuzhou in 2009,
Teddy Pons regained it in the same city after winning race 1 this
morning, but unlike his Wold title winning compatriots was not able to
celebrate the overall Grand Prix win, breaking down on lap 13 of race 2.

Race 2 honours went to Sweden’s Lars Akerblom, his first win on the
UIM-ABP tour also giving him his first Grand Prix title finishing ahead
of Francois Medori who took third overall, with Poland’s Andrzej
Wisniewski taking his first overall podium finish in second place after
finishing third in both races.

The newly crowned Ski World Champion Jeremy Poret signed off his season
in the most emphatic manner, completing the race win double over his
American rival Chris MacClugage to win his second Grand Prix of the year
and reclaim the World title he last held in 2012.

Poret led from start-to-finish but was unable to shake off the
persistent challenge from MacClugage, but held on to take the chequered
flag, his fifth win of the year. Spain’s Nacho Armillas grabbed his
second podium of the year finishing in third place in both races.

In Ski Ladies Jennifer Menard celebrated her first full season on the
UIM-ABP tour rounding out her year with a sixth race win and third GP
title to become World Champion for the first time, finishing ahead of
Spain’s Sandra Fernandez Rodriguez and title rival and World runner-up
Estelle Poret.

Going into the final heat of Freestyle just one question remained
unanswered, could the World Champion Rok Florjancic produce the perfect
routine and get the perfect score?

After watching both Roberto Mariani and then brother Nac produce two
outstanding performances, scoring 84 and 95 points respectively,  the
29-year-old from Maribor in Slovenia produced a near-perfect set of
tricks, sealing his second consecutive World title with a score off 99
out of a 100.