- After a historic hat-trick in the inaugural European Talent Cup, the team will fight to maintain the level in the two races scheduled for next weekend.
- In JuniorGP, Ángel Piqueras will try to get the championship lead, while Bartolini, Llambías and Gourdon will seek to improve Estoril’s results.
- Circuit Ricardo Tormo is one of the routes that the riders of the team know best, as demonstrated by the results obtained last year.
Two weeks after the successful start starring in Estoril, which included a historic treble in one of the races of the European Talent Cup, Team Estrella Galicia 0.0 faces the second stop of the FIM JuniorGP ambitiously. At the Circuit Ricardo Tormo in Cheste (Valencia), the riders will seek to reaffirm the good feelings shown in Portugal, in a scenario they will visit again in six months, right at the event that will close the championship.
Months of intense work, an updated organizational chart and a new operating method, which was already applied in pre-season, are some of the keys that explain the good results added in Estoril, and that this coming weekend should take Team Estrella Galicia 0,0 to follow at the top of the ranking of each category.
At the European Talent Cup, the bar is high after the historic podium won by Brian Uriarte, Rico Salmela and Hakim Danish in one of the two races. The Santander rider managed to repeat victory in the second race, where Salmela was sixth and Danish ended up on the ground after a fall of Guido Pini that took him ahead.
The three riders, together with the British Amanuel Brinton, arrive with great confidence and enthusiasm to Valencia, in a circuit that they know perfectly. However, Uriarte and Salmela already stepped on the podium last year. The ETC teams will play two races on Sunday, with the possibility that Team Estrella Galicia 0.0 drivers begin to expand differences with their top pursuers and rivals in the fight for the title.
For their part, the riders of the JuniorGP category will also have two races ahead, which will serve to mark the first distances, since in Estoril they only played one. A very positive premiere for Ángel Piqueras, who led most of the laps and finished second, two thousandths of the winner. His teammate and new addition to the team, Elia Bartolini, went from less to more in Estoril, where he was seventh, and hopes to be among the front positions. Facundo Llambías and Alex Gourdon also work to make a jump in the classification.
“We have thoroughly prepared the race of Valencia, because every weekend is a fight and you have to give the maximum at all times. It is a circuit that our riders know very well, where they already have experience, and hopefully this will serve as a boost to have good results,” says Kev Coghlan, Team Manager of the team. “Piqueras was strong in Estoril and also last year in Valencia, so we hope he is fighting again for podium positions. And the rest of the team are also comfortable on this circuit”, explains Coghlan about JuniorGP, while regarding the ETC “the riders come very strong and we will try to have the four bikes in front and, with a little luck, repeat the result of Portugal”.
With a single event played so far in the calendar, in the European Talent Cup the Santanderino Brian Uriarte heads the standings with a full 50 points, ahead of Máximo Quiles (33) and his teammate Rico Salmela, which adds 30. Hakim Danish is seventh with 16 while Amanuel Brinton hopes to premiere in Valencia.
In JuniorGP, the winner in Estoril, Nico Carraro, leads the table with 25 points, just ahead of Ángel Piqueras, who has 20. The other rider with Team Estrella Galicia 0.0 points is Elia Bartolini, who is seventh place with 9. Facundo Llambías and Alex Gourdon seek to score their first points in Spanish territory.
The second round of the calendar will start with the usual free practice on Thursday and Friday, which will give way to the qualifying session on Saturday (from 9:00 CEST). Once the starting grid is decided, on Sunday the races will arrive, with the Last Chance of the ETC at 9:15h CEST. The first round of the JuniorGP will leave at 11:00h CEST, scheduled to 17 laps, and just after will come the first round of the ETC at 12:00h CEST, 16 laps. At 14:00h CEST will arrive the second of the races in JuniorGP with 17 laps ahead, and to finish the ETC drivers will return to tread the asphalt from 15:00h CEST to complete 16 more laps.
All the action of the weekend can be followed live through the DAZN platform, as well as its channel in Movistar+, and in Teledeporte.
