The rider of the Asia Talent Team was eighth in the dry and a stunning second overall in the wet. Meanwhile Toba struggles with traffic and a fall hinders Norrodin.
The penultimate round of the Moto3™ Junior World Championship is held this weekend at the famous Jerez circuit and confirmed the steady growth of the Asia Talent Team, especially Yuta Date who has finished in his best position of the year on a tricky day.
The day dawned with sunshine, but forecasts of heavy rain on Saturday and Sunday lingered. In the morning session, Date set a best lap time of 1’49.059, a while behind the leaders of the day (Bulega and Mir), but only 0.8s from the front row and good enough for eighth on the grid. Meanwhile, Toba’s session began strongly and he set a best time of 1’49.6 on his fifth lap. But as the session progressed he was not able to lower his time, encountering traffic with each attempt he made, the Japanese rider will start sixteenth tomorrow.
It was a worse situation for Norrodin, who only set the 24th best time because of a fall in the first Qualifying session.
In the afternoon session the predicted rain came, leaving the track in a difficult condition. It was clear that this second session would have no impact on the grid positions, but all riders used it to better prepare for the two races on Sunday which are predicted to be held under similar conditions.
Difficult conditions were not inconvenient for Date who showed he was clearly fast in the wet, setting the second fastest time which was only bettered in the final minutes of Malaysia’s Pawi. Kaito Toba also went well on the increasingly wet track, recording the 12th best time. Norrodin continued to struggle, able to set just two flying laps in the session.
Tomorrow the two races of the Moto3™ Junior World Championship will be held in Jerez, the first at 11:00 Local Time and the second at 14:00 Local Time. Countries without live television coverage can watch the race here.
Full results from throughout the year can be viewed here
