The Avintia Esponsorama Racing riders made their debut today at the Red Bull Ring – Spielberg, where they completed the first and second free practice of the Bitci Motorrad Grand Prix von Österreich.
Xavi Cardelús had a successful day and finished in 8th position in the combined practice times. The Andorran rider was 4th in the morning and, in the afternoon, he finished 8th despite improving his time by 6 tenths of a second. Cardelús’ best time was 1:36.213.
André Pires had his first taste of the Red Bull Ring. The Portuguese rider suffered from some technical problems which did not allow him to do too many laps to the circuit. Anyway, Pires showed a great progression compared to previous Grand Prix and ended the day in 18th position with a time of 1:38.800.
Tomorrow at 8:15, Cardelús and Pires will take part in the third free practice before the E-Pole of the Bitci Motorrad Grand Prix von Österreich.
“It’s not a bad start to the weekend. We’re eighth, so that’s not bad. My fastest lap was cancelled, and with that lap I would have been sixth. Anyway, we need to stay focused and work hard this afternoon to get a good result in the E-Pole tomorrow.”
“I’ve had a good first contact with the circuit and I’m liking it. I trained hard during the summer break and that made me feel more comfortable with the bike and I’m closer to the other riders. We had some technical problems and I wasn’t able to do too many laps, but the team is working to solve them. I’m looking forward to getting back on track and being able to do more laps, because I only managed to do six fast laps.”
