British pace-setter Todd Kellett – Drag’on Yamaha strengthened his vicelike grip on the Moto category of the 2025 FIM Sand Races World Championship with a narrow victory in today’s concluding race at the Bibione Sand Storm in north-east Italy while defending Moto Women champion Amandine Verstappen – Yamaha and reigning Quad king Pablo Violet – Drag’on Yamaha both returned to their winning ways.

Following his dominant performance yesterday when he seized control on the opening lap, twenty-eight-year-old Kellett – who is aiming for his third consecutive title in the discipline and his first now the Moto class has been elevated to full FIM World Championship status for 2025 – failed to get away as cleanly as he had on Saturday.

However, he was able to avoid the opening turn chaos and stay out of trouble and when former FIM World Championship Motocross racer Cyril Genot – Honda from Belgium led France’s Jeremy Hauquier – Yamaha, who was third yesterday, across the line at the end of the opening lap, Kellett was already up to seventh and less than seven seconds off the lead.

With Kellett’s team-mate Milko Potisek also playing catch-up after struggling out of the gate, Hauquier held the virtual lead for the class overall, but not for long and by lap four Kellett had carved his way through to second with his sights set on Genot who by this point was over twenty-two seconds ahead.

With the race just over the half-distance mark, Kellett’s relentless reeling in of Genot finally started to pay off and he got the deficit down to eight seconds as Norway’s Hakon Fredriksen – Honda held third a further one-and-three-quarter minutes behind with Hauquier barely three bike lengths behind him in fourth.

Lap after lap Genot’s advantage came down before finally, after fourteen laps, Kellett managed to find a line through. However, he was unable to check out and the biggest his lead got to was around five seconds and Genot had it down to just over a second at the flag.

“Today was a very different story to yesterday,” said Kellett. “I didn’t get the best start and got squeezed into the ocean that wasn’t very pleasant and had a problem with my goggles, but once I found a rhythm I kept pushing and had a good battle with Cyril.”

Fredriksen ended the race on the podium in third for second overall for the weekend, with Hauquier fourth from Dutch racer Damien Knuiman – Yamaha as Potisek’s race-long game of catch-up was rewarded with tenth.

On Saturday reigning Moto Women champion Verstappen suffered her first defeat in the class at the hands of Italy’s Kiara Fontanesi, a six-time FIM Women’s Motocross World Champion, but the twenty-six-year-old Belgian was back in charge today to snatch the weekend’s overall verdict.

Getting herself into a strong position during the early laps, Verstappen survived an early scare before settling into an initial twenty-third – nine places ahead of Fontanesi – and then advancing to eighteenth, sixteen seconds in front of Fontanesi who was nineteenth. French rider Camille Viaud – Yamaha was third female home in twenty-third.

“I’m feeling good,” said Verstappen. “At the start a rider crashed on top of me in the water and I was worried about the bike, but I had a good gap on Kiara because she crashed at the beginning and I was able to control the race. I’m very happy to win and extend my championship lead.”

After retiring yesterday, France’s Antoine Meo – Ducati won the Moto Veteran class on seventeen laps, four clear of Alexis Van De Woestyne – GASGAS, while Evan Demeester – Honda won the Moto Junior class again from Matheo Gerat – Yamaha and Freddy Seguin – Honda won in Moto Vintage.

Earlier in the day the Quad class had blasted off down the sands for its second moto of the weekend and following his early exit yesterday, defending champion Violet – who started the weekend as the series leader – had a point to prove and he took the fight to battling Belgian Dirk Schelfhout – Honda who had dominated on Saturday.

Schelfhout had also topped yesterday’s Quad Veteran class and he was using all his years of experience to stay with the talented twenty-three-year-old Frenchman, but Violet’s youth began to pay off as the course became tougher and more technical and he gradually eased clear of the chasing pack.

At the end of just over an hour in the saddle and eleven hard-fought laps, Violet was just under two minutes clear of Schelfhout who in turn was over thirty-seconds ahead of Fabien Michel who repeated his third-placed finish from Saturday. Defending Quad Veteran champion Axel Dutrie – Drag’on Yamaha was fourth from fellow Frenchman Maxime Lopes Da Fonseca – Yamaha.

The result sees Schelfhout take the weekend’s overall verdicts in both the Quad and Quad Veteran classes.

With three rounds down and three to go, focus in the 2025 FIM Sand Races World Championship now returns to France for the Ronde des Sables Hossegor-Capbreton – round four of the series – on 21-23 November.

FULL FINAL RESULTS HERE