Luis Salom kickstarts his Valencia weekend with new record

A magnificent first day of the Valencian GP saw Luis Salom take an early advantage. The current Moto3 World Championship leader was quickest on the opening day of practice sessions at the Ricardo Tormo track, setting a new circuit record in the process.

Good weather and temperatures of 17ºC were the backdrop to the opening session of the year’s final round. Red Bull KTM Ajo riders Luis Salom and Zulfahmi Khairuddin began strong, but it wasn’t until his final stint that the former moved up into first place with a 1:40.403 lap. That time broke the previous circuit record at the track and was the quickest of the day.

Salom, Zulfahmi Khairuddin and Sissis were back on track in the second session, which featured stronger winds. Gusts of up to 32 km/h affected their afternoon, impeding their quest to lower their times from the morning. Salom was, however, able to set a good pace on used tyres and was just 13 milliseconds off the top time with a 1:40.502 lap.

Tomorrow sees qualifying take place from 12:35pm local time.

Luis Salom
“I have no reason to be nervous. It was a good day today. We end Friday with the best time on the board and in the afternoon we had a strong pace on tyres with 20 laps in them. I am very happy and need to be calm, because today went well. We shall see what happens tomorrow, but if we keep on this same line of work then we can have a good qualifying session.
I took the best time of the day, so I am happy. The times are going to drop a lot tomorrow. We can’t lose focus and need to keep working hard.”

Source: Red Bull KTM Ajo Motorsport