2 Jul 2022
In the fight for the podium and aiming for career-best finishes, it was a fruitful Saturday in the south of Spain for the Junior Talent Team
The 2022 FIM JuniorGP™ World Championship brought a promising qualifying as Round 4 of the season ignited at the Circuito de Jerez – Angel Nieto in Spain. For 2022’s Junior Talent Team, the eighth season of the JTT, it was a solid day with prosperity on the horizon for Sunday. Leading the way was Thai star Tatchakorn Buasri (Honda Racing Thailand), who finished in ninth, with plenty of potential to be reached when racing commences from all four JTT contenders.
With the fastest lap times all coming from the cooler morning session before temperatures soared into the 30s in the afternoon, Buasri set a solid 1’47.055s to slot himself into the top ten and on the third row of the grid. In 2020, the Thai rider scored his first points of his career at Jerez and last year, achieved his best finish of the season at the circuit. Finishing just over half a second off the top time and with one second in qualifying covering more riders than any other round in the 2022 JuniorGP™ season, Buasri aims to battle hard on Sunday.
Looking to strike back after a tricky and luckless time in Barcelona, Eddie O’Shea (British Talent Team) will start from 14th on the grid after being just over a second off the pole time. A 1’47.676s will see him in the battle for strong points as he goes for a second top ten of his career. The 15-year-old missed out on points at Jerez in 2021, something he’ll be keen not to repeat.
On the fringes of the top 20, Danial Sharil (Asia Talent Team) and Arbi Aditama (Astra Honda Racing Team) will start from 20th and 21st respectively. For Sharil, his time was 1.4s off pole position but he was inside the top ten in the afternoon session, showing that he has good race pace to come through for a fifth points-scoring ride of the season. As for Aditama, he likewise improved his position in the hotter afternoon session, but the Indonesian couldn’t improve his time. Expect both riders to be in the battle for the points and to be knocking on the door of the top ten.
Two races for the class this weekend promise to be thrillers, with lights out for Race 1 at 11:00 local time (GMT+2) whilst Race 2 gets underway at 14:00, both set for 16 laps of action.
