Crowned World Champion during the Magny-Cours race, Manuel Gonzalez (Kawasaki ParkinGO Team) quietly discovered the Losail circuit in the suburbs of the capital Doha this Thursday. On the other hand, there was a great fight between Ana Carrasco (Kawasaki Provec WorldSSP300), Scott Deroue (Kawasaki Motoport) and Andy Verdoïa (BCD Yamaha MS Racing) for second place in the Championship.
The Frenchman, unlike his two opponents, did not know the Qatari circuit. Victor Steeman (Freudenberg KTM Junior Team) could still climb to fourth place in the Championship. He was 20 points behind Verdoïa. 1 point behind Steeman in the general classification was Marc Garcia (DS Junior Team). Behind Garcia, we found in order Jan-Ole Jahnig (Freudenberg KTM Junior Team), Galang Hendra Pratama (Semakin Di Depan Biblion Motoxracing), Hugo De Cancellis (Team Trasimeno Yamaha) and Nick Kalinin (Nutec – RT Motorsports by SKM – Kawasaki).
At the start of the first session, Andy Verdoïa was the fastest in 2'17.179, but Ana Carrasco took the best time in 2'16.859. She improved at the end of the session to 2'16.332, then finally to 2'15.984, 1.067 ahead of Bruno Ieraci.
Andy Verdoïa ranked fourth at 1.195, Samuel di Sora 18th at 2.723 and Hugo de Cancellis 27th at 4.570.
Results of the first free practice session:
Andy Verdoïa and his teammate Beatriz Neila
During the second session, Ana Carrasco continued her performance by improving her time from the first session to 2'15.650. But Andy Verdoïa threatened her in 2'15.696, that is to say at 0.046. Jan-Ole Jahnig moved his KTM into third position at 0.3.
Shortly before halfway through the session, the new World Champion Manuel Gonzalez reached first position with a time of 2'15.438, 0.212 ahead of Carrasco and 0.358 ahead of Verdoïa.
Manuel Gonzalez maintained the best performance of the day ahead of Ana Carrasco and Andy Verdoïa, who discovered the track this Thursday. Hugo de Cancellis finished 13th and Samuel di Sora 23rd.
Results of the first day of free practice:
Provisional ranking of the World Championship:
Photos © worldsbk.com / Dorna, Yamaha Racing
