In the World Championship races, Jeremy
Perez reigned-supreme, stealing heat 1
from Francois Medori on the last corner of
the final lap and crushing the opposition
in heat two to complete the double – last
year’s number one in the World Rankings
now leading the World Championship.
Race 1 was full of drama and produced an
extraordinary and spectacular ending to
the days racing, with the early race leaders
Lorenzo Benaglia and Thamer Al-Darwish
both hitting trouble.
Benaglia stormed to the front from the
start and for the first three laps was in
complete control and the thousands of
spectators started to think of an Italian win
on home water, then on lap 4 a problem
with the compressor forced him to stop
and carry out on-water repairs, eventually
fixing the problem but dropping down to
finish in 21st place.
Al-Darwish took over at the front and led
until lap 10 when he was hit from the side
and ran off the circuit, recovering to finish
in tenth, the lead changing for the third
time as Francois Medori hit the front on
lap 11.
The Frenchman led for the next four laps but
was being chased down by his hard-charging
countryman Perez, who looked to have too
much to do when he was forced to take the
penalty buoy at the endof the penultimate lap.
But Perez had other ideas and drove like a
man possessed closing in on Medori and
snatching the win with the chequered flag
just metres away.
Qatar’s Mohamed Al-Heidus made up for
the team’s disappointment of seeing Al-
Darwish literally knocked off the lead and
produced a battling performance to take
third place from pole-sitter Teddy Pons,
with Spain’s Jordi Tomas Jimenez moving
up from twelfth to finish in fifth ahead of
Andrezj Wisniewski.
Perez made race 2 look easy, hitting the
front on lap 3 after being outgunned at the
start by Wisniewski, whose race ended a
lap later, and chased by Al Heidus.
The Qatari stayed within a couple
of seconds of the leader for several
laps before Perez started to pull way
extending his lead lap-by-lap to run out a
comfortable winner.
Thamer Al Darwish was running strongly
in third spot but hit trouble on lap 10 and
dropped down through the field, with
Teddy Pons fighting his way back from
lying in ninth at the end of lap 1 to finish
third.
But a post-race one lap penalty handed
out to a raft of riders for jumping the start,
including Al Heidus, dropped him to fifth
and elevated Pons to second and third
overall, with Hungary’s Rainer Eidner up to
third in the heat ahead of a battling Mattia
Fracasso.
For Qatar winner Cyrille Lemoine, the
event was one to forget, failing to post
points and dropping to fourth in the title
race after leading it after Qatar.
In Ski Chris MacClugage and Jeremy
Poret traded heat wins, Mac laying the
ghost of Qatar’s loss to rest to win the GP
of Italy title over his rival, with Portugal’s
Tiago Sousa third overall.
Race 1 was another titanic battle, the
American
making
his
customary
electrifying start to get ahead of pole-
sitter and rival Poret, with Tiago Sousa,
Alberto Monti and Nacho Armillas taking
up the chase.
MacClugage held firm but could not
widen the gap to more than two seconds,
when on lap 7 Poret started to make his
move, closing in and then passing him
on lap 8, going on to take his third win of
the year and extend his Championship
lead, finishing nine seconds clear of
MacClugage.
AQUABIKE
14 | H20 MAGAZINE - SEPTEMBER 2014
h2oracing.net
