Japanese rider leads the Junior Talent Team ranks at MotorLand Aragon
Championship challenger Yuki Kunii will start the FIM CEV Repsol FIM Moto3™ Junior World Championship race from second on the grid at MotorLand Aragon, impressing to take a front row start as he gets back to fully fit. The Japanese rider was one of only two men to lap MotorLand in the 1:58s, the other being key rival Jeremy Alcoba – setting up an important duel on Sunday.
The next man up in the JTT ranks is Mario Aji, who had a solid Saturday in the scorching conditions to take P16 on the grid, well-placed for an assault on the points as he gets back in action. Teammates Max Cook, Bill Van Eerde and Haruki Noguchi weren’t too far behind either as they get to grips with the technical challenge of MotorLand on their JTT machinery, with the three taking P20, P21 and P22 respectively – incredibly close together.
Cook is only a couple of tenths down on Aji as the timesheets tightened up, and the Brit was only 0.058 faster than teammate Van Eerde. The Australian, in turn, only got the better of Noguchi by a single thousandth. They’ll be aiming to take points and they’re also perfectly poised for the inter-team battle to heat up, so a lot will come down to the start and then pace over race distance.
After a good Saturday’s work, Kunii is in a good position to attack in the single Moto3™ race at MotorLand Aragon. Can the Japanese rider cut down his points deficit? And can Aji, Cook, Van Eerde and Noguchi move forward at lights out and take some more points before the break? Find out at 13:00 (GMT +2) on Sunday.
