Arriving at the third meeting of the European Talent Cup season on the Barcelona-Catalunya circuit, it was a trio of representatives from the Cuna de Campeones who held the reins of the championship, Adrian Cruces in the lead ahead of Hugo Millan and Xabi Xurutuza.
On a Catalan circuit made “greasy” by the high heat, qualifying would be played out on Saturday morning in QP1, Hugo Millan (#44, Cuna de Campeones) securing a second consecutive pole position in Group B ahead of his teammate Xabi Xurutuza (#85, Cuna de Campeones) in Group A, followed by Maximo Martinez (#28, Team Honda Laglisse) in third position on the first row of the starting grid for the second consecutive time.
We recall that theEuropean Talent Cup now constitutes the intermediate stage between the MiniGP World Series and Junior Moto3 World Championship, and that it already attracts 51 drivers divided into two groups within a one-make formula contested aboard a completely Stock Honda 250cc Moto3.
At the end of the qualifications, we see that the leader of the cup, Adrian Cruces (#10, Cuna de Campeones), could not do better than the 9th time while the French side Guillem Planques (#24, Larresport) obtained a good 11th position, Alex Gourdon (#87, Leopard Impala Junior Team) a 26th place on the grid.
Guillem Planques
Conversely, Theo Gourdon (Leopard Impala Junior Team), Léandro Quintans San (First Bike Academy) and Clement Giabbani (French team) have to go through the repechage race… in vain! Too bad for Theo Gourdon who fails less than half a second from the repechage while our other representatives are unfortunately much much further away…
Only one race was on the program for this Catalan meeting, contested with 32° in the air and 48° on the asphalt.
Maximo Martinez (Team Honda Laglisse) gets the best start, and off we go for 15 laps of daggers drawn brawling!
Quickly, a group of 4 pilots made up of Maximo Martinez (#28, Team Honda Laglisse), Hugo Millan (#44, Cuna de Campeones), Xabi Xurutuza (#85, Cuna de Campeones) and… Adrian Cruces (#10, Cuna de Campeones) author of an excellent start to the race, just like Guillem Planques (Larresport) who leads the peloton by a second!
In the end, we will not see the quartet of escapees again and, among the strong men in the category, we will deplore the technical incident that occurred at Jacob Roulstone (Leopard Imapala Junior Team), the winner of race 1 at Estoril, but above all the fall of the championship leader, Adrian Cruces (#10, Cuna de Campeones), carried away by his enthusiasm fortunately without gravity 6 laps from the finish.
The three remaining escapees crossed the checkered flag in 46 thousandths of a second, the Basque Xabi Zurutuza in the lead, while Guillem Planques (Larresport), briefly falling back to 13th position, finally finished 9th at the end of a very solid race.
Still on the French side, we will also note the first point scored by Alex Gourdon (#87, Leopard Impala Junior Team).
Race ranking:
Championship standings:
Still a trio of Cuna de Campeones, but Adrian Cruces loses leadership to Hugo Millan and even lets the winner of the race pass, Xabi Zurutuza.
Next meeting on July 4 in Portimão.
