The Junior FIM CEV Repsol World Championship was at Misano Adriatico in Italy for the seventh round, which ran alongside the MotoGP round at the Misano World Circuit. For the TM Racing Factory Team Moto3, this was their home round, which involved a qualifying session on Friday and just one race on Saturday.

Friday saw the Italian team’s three riders, Nicola Carraro, Raffaele Fusco and David Salvador, take to the track for the two qualifying sessions that established the grid positions for Saturday’s races.

The TM Racing Factory Team Moto3 riders worked hard with the technicians to find the best set-up for their respective bikes at this track. The morning session ran on a dry track, while conditions were wet for the second session, which prevented the riders from improving on their times. In the pista combined standings, David Salvador placed fourteenth (1’45”447) while Raffaele Fusco (1’45”588) and Nicola Carraro (1’46”166) finished in eighteenth and twenty-fifth place respectively.

With these results, the Spaniard lined up on the fifth row, Fusco from the sixth and Carraro from the ninth for the afternoon’s 17-lap race.

Salvador made a good start but found himself in the middle of a group that slowed his progress in the early stages. As the race went on, David began to work his way up the field as far as ninth position. After making a strong start, Fusco essentially held his position, but in the final laps he was able to make some passes and cross the line thirteenth, earning a few points for the classification. Carraro ran a good but unlucky race; lying fifteenth through the first laps, he was able to climb to ninth but received a penalty at the end that relegated him to twenty-second place.

The next and final Junior FIM CEV Repsol world championship round for the TM Racing Factory Team Moto3 will take place over the weekend of 20-21 November at the Valencia circuit in Spain.

 

Misano World Circuit – Italy

Junior FIM CEV Repsol Moto3 World Championship

Qualifying: 1) Munoz (KTM) – 2) Alonso (GasGas) – 3) Kelso (KTM) – 4) Matsuyama (Honda) – 5) Ortolà (KTM) …….14) Salvador (TM) …… 18) Fusco (TM) – 25) Carraro (TM)

Race 1: 1) Kelso (KTM) – 2) Ortola (KTM) – 3) Munoz (KTM) – 4) Veijer (Husqvarna) – 5) Garcia (Honda) ……… 9) Salvador (TM)…..13) Fusco (TM) …… 22) Carraro (TM)

Nicola Carraro: “It was a good race, but we didn’t get what we deserved. In qualifying, I was penalised by the second wet session that prevented me from improving. I made a good start to the race, but while in the group that was fighting for fourth, I made a mistake that saw me relegated to twenty-second place. I’m sorry about today’s result, but I know we’re competitive and ready to fight at the front”.

 

David Salvador: “It has been a very challenging weekend, but it has helped us to gain experience and to improve. We didn’t find the right setting for Misano but we will try to improve and be more competitive”.

 

Raffaele Fusco: “Qualifying was quite complicated due to the track conditions in Q2 and this meant I started quite far back in the race. I made a good start and remained with the leading group, until a contact with another rider caused me to fall back, finishing in thirteenth place but still close to the front. Without the issue with that rider, I definitely would have scored a better result, but that’s racing. Now we’ll look ahead and focus on the Valencia round”.

 

Mattia Serafini: ““An absolutely positive but extremely complicated weekend. We only had two qualifying sessions at Misano and then the race on Saturday and so there was no time to test or work on our bikes. And then, to make things more difficult, it started to rain which meant that one of the qualifying sessions was all but useless. Despite this, our riders and the team gave it their all and did well. Now we need to prepare for the final Valencia round where we hope to see the fruit of our progress and labour in the results.”