Doha: Pole positions went to French girl Estelle Poret, Belgian Quinten Bossche, Kuwait’s Yousef Al-Abdulrazzaq, Emirati Amer Hawair and Team Abu Dhabi’s Rashid Al-Mulla in their respective Ski Ladies GP1, Ski GP1, Runabout GP1, Runabout GP2 and Freestyle classes at the Old Doha Port Grand Prix of Qatar on Thursday afternoon.
The qualifying sessions for the final round of the UIM-ABP World Aquabike Championship took place in hot ambient conditions on a challenging course adjacent to the old port area in Doha.
Pole in Ski Ladies GP1 for Estelle Poret
As the temperature climbed to in excess of 31°C, championship leader Estelle Poret laid down the gauntlet with the target lap of 1min 40.512sec. Defending champion Jasmiin Ypraus slotted into second ahead of Naomi Benini and Benedicte Drange with 10 minutes of the session remaining.
All 10 girls were on the water as the current European champion Jessica Chavanne moved into fifth place. Sofie Borgström took a tumble and languished down in 10th. That potent opening lap proved unbeatable for Poret and the French girl claimed pole for the opening Moto with an even quicker run of 1min 39.929sec. She finished ahead of Drange, Ypraus, Benini, and Chavanne.
River Varner, Virginie Morlaes, Emy Garcia, Borgström and Janina Johansson rounded off the qualifiers. Chavanne and Morlaes both took a tumble at the end of the session but still qualified in fifth and seventh.
Poret said: “I am very happy. There are a lot of waves and it was difficult. I just tried to have fun and I did. It’s a good start to the weekend for me.”
