Fernandez finishes fourth in French qualification

Honda HRC’s Ruben Fernandez finished fourth at Ernee, continuing his good run of recent form here at the French GP qualification race and setting himself up nicely for tomorrow’s GP-scoring motos.

The Spaniard finished on the podium in Portugal and Spain, in what were two GPs hit by torrential rain, so it was nice for the Honda CRF450R rider to show that he has speed in dry conditions as well. He didn’t find easy in the practice sessions, but an excellent start saw him rounding the first bend inside the top five and from there he just rode a nice consistent pace to move himself closer to third place in the championship and also give himself a good chance at a third podium in a row in tomorrow’s races.

Valerio Lata got back to his early-season form, with a fifth place in the MX2 qualification race after showing speed throughout the day. The Italian has struggled in recent weeks with the weather, but the dry circuit allowed the youngster to show off his skills and it should give him a big boost of confidence for this round and the upcoming rounds as we head towards the halfway point of the season.

Luck certainly didn’t favour fellow Honda CRF250R rider Ferruccio Zanchi after a good start was ruined by a rider falling in front of him, in one of the long-rutted corners and dropping the #73 outside the top 20. When he did get going again, he put on quite a charge and made his way all the way up to 11^th, which is one place outside of the points in the Saturday qualification races. Despite this misfortune, the fact he was able to move through the field should give him some confidence, and if he is able to get another good start, he’ll be hoping to follow up his good results from Lugo last time out.

There is a little bit of rain forecast tomorrow morning, but certainly not on the level that we had the last two GPs so the magnificent Ernee circuit should be prime for when the riders hit the track for their races in the afternoon.

MX2 Qualification Race
1. Andrea Adamo (ITA, KTM), 24:13.701; 2. Simon Längenfelder (GER, KTM), +0:02.770; 3. Sacha Coenen (BEL, KTM), +0:08.891; 4. Thibault Benistant (FRA, Yamaha), +0:18.553; 5. Valerio Lata (ITA, Honda), +0:26.877; 6. Oriol Oliver (ESP, KTM), +0:29.008; 7. Cas Valk (NED, KTM), +0:39.169; 8. Kay de Wolf (NED, Husqvarna), +0:46.295; 9. Karlis Alberts Reisulis (LAT, Yamaha), +0:47.402; 10. Liam Everts (BEL, Husqvarna), +0:47.804; 11. Ferruccio Zanchi (ITA, Honda), +0:58.717;