The Malaysian rider navigated miserable conditions excellently to record a personal best grid position in the class
Danial Shahril was the Junior Talent Team’s sole representative in a wet and miserable Q2 session at Round 2 of the FIM JuniorGP™ World Championship in Estoril, but the Malaysian made it count as he earned a brilliant P5 start on Sunday. It’s a best-ever grid position for the Asia Talent Team rider in the JuniorGP™ category, and is richly deserved.
Shahril had to come through Q1 to compete in the battle for pole, and that experience told later in the day as he got to grips with the incredibly difficult conditions in Estoril to put himself onto the second row. Having picked up a top 10 in the opening round in Misano, Shahril can now set his sights on recording a personal best result on Sunday, and perhaps even a maiden podium in the class.
A tougher day awaits Shahril’s teammate Amon Odaki, with the Asia Talent Team rider qualifying on the final row after placing P19 in Q1. Maybe not what the Japanese rider had in mind coming into the weekend, but Saturday’s qualifying will prove a valuable learning experience as the conditions played their part, while a points finish isn’t completely out of the picture either, given the #56 came from 29th on the grid to take points in Race 2 in Misano.
Elsewhere, Honda Racing Thailand’s Kiattisak Singhapong will start from P24 on his first appearance in the class, with the wildcard rider out-qualifying compatriot and teammate Jakreephat Phuettisan, who is in P26. Having narrowly missed out on the points in Misano Race 1, Phuettisan will be hopeful of building on his encouraging early performances in his rookie JuniorGP™ season.
There is only one JuniorGP™ race this weekend in Estoril, but it promises to be 16 laps of pure box office entertainment and you can catch all the action from 13:00 local time (UTC +1)!
