CEV Repsol, Navarra – Qualifying report
On a pleasant day and in a spectacular setting, Quartararo in Moto3™, Alan Techer in Moto2™ and Carmelo Morales in Superbike each earned first place on tomorrow’s starting grid, with José Jiménez taking victory in the first race of the Kawasaki Z Cup scheduled for the weekend.
Fabio Quartararo (FRA-Honda) once again dominated to post the best time of the day – and the best time ever in the FIM CEV Repsol Moto3 at this circuit. Yet it was Aleix Espargaró’s protégé Gabriel Rodrigo (SPA-KTM) who brought some excitement to the day’s qualifying session, coming up only six hundredths of a second short of the fastest time, which in the end gave him second position. Closing out the front row on Sunday’s grid will be Jorge Navarro (SPA-Kalex KTM), making his debut in this race with the Marc VDS Racing Team. Italians Nicolo Bulega (KTM) and Stefano Manzi (Mahindra) will start out on the second row, along with Remy Gardner (AUS-KTM). Luca Marini (ITA-Kalex) rode well to take a well-deserved seventh place on the starting grid.
Targobank Motorsport team notched up a double, getting two of their riders – Alan Techer (FRA-Tech3) and Xavi Vierge (SPA-Tech 3) – in the top slots in Moto2. The Frenchman wrestled first place away from the only pole-position rider so far in the series – Jesko Raffin (SWI-Kalex) – who will start from fourth tomorrow. Just 0.162 seconds behind the pole man was Florian Alt (GER-Kalex), earning himself the third slot on the grid. Bertin Thibaut (FRA) was fastest rider in the Superstock 600 category.
The Superbike class offered similar surprises. After two months out of action after his Montmeló accident, Carmelo Morales (SPA-Kawasaki) came back in style by taking pole position. Santiago Barragán (SPA-Kawasaki) and Dani Rivas (SPA-BMW) demonstrated their competitiveness, stopping the clock in 1:39.738 and 1:39.916, earning them second and third position on the grid for the seventh race this season. Guillermo Llano (SPA-Kawasaki) was the top privateer rider.
It was a gruelling day for the Kawasaki Z Cup riders. Besides the two qualifying sessions, the riders also disputed the fourth race of the season, in which José Jiménez chalked up a win. He was joined on the podium by Joan Sardanyons -who now has the lead in the overall classification- and Francisco Valera.
The race schedule for tomorrow is as follows (local time):
11:00 Moto2-Superstock 600 (18 laps)
12:00 Superbike (18 laps)
13:00 Moto3 (17 laps)
14:00 Moto2-Superstock 600 (18 laps)
15:00 Kawasaki Z Cup (17 laps)
As usual, the entrance to the paddock will be free on Sunday. In addition, FIM CEV Repsol fans who go to the Circuito de Navarra Accreditation Centre on Sunday may collect a pass to take part in the Pit Lane Walk which takes place at 10.20, before the start of racing.
At home the races can be seen live on the Movistar MotoGP channel of Movistar TV and the Energy channel of Mediaset Spain. French fans can follow the Moto3 race live on Eurosport, while in Italy Sky will broadcast the Moto3 race live. In other countries, all races will be broadcast on the CEV Repsol Youtube championship channel.
Source: CEV Repsol
