Vlaanderen recovers to sixth in Italian GP qualification
After a difficult start to his Italian GP qualification race, Team HRC’s Calvin Vlaanderen stormed through the field to fight his way back to sixth place, giving him a good chance of putting his Honda CRF250RW on the podium once again.
The famous Imola motor racing circuit is the hosting this 2019 MXGP of Italy and the man-made track produced a really intense MX2 qualification race, with close racing throughout the field. After one lap Vlaanderen has moved his way up to 14th place and the Honda rider continued to progress through the pack, picking off another eight competitors as he finished in sixth place.
This should set him up nicely for tomorrow where he knows two good starts will give him the platform he needs to challenge for the podium spots once again as he looks to back up the second overall he got at the last round in Belgium. Vlaanderen starts Sunday with a warm up session at 10:25am, which is then followed by the two main races at 12:15 and 15:10.
Calvin Vlaanderen 10
The day started pretty well as I had a good feeling on the track straight away. Today was actually the first GP of the year where I haven’t needed to change anything all day, so that’s really positive and it shows how comfortable I was out there. I was third in free practice, and sixth in timed practice but I wasn’t able to get a clean lap in so I wasn’t too disappointed with that. Unfortunately I got a really bad start in the qualifying race, outside the top 20 and I had to come through the pack and minimise any damage for tomorrow’s start. I rode smart, didn’t do anything stupid and came back to sixth so my speed was good and I think tomorrow with the longer motos I can do even better.
Marcus Pereira de Freitas
It was an impressive ride from Calvin to come back to sixth place after that start, especially on a track that wasn’t easy to pass on. He seemed to find some really good lines and showed a lot of speed, even in traffic so we are all hopeful for tomorrow that if can get out the gate, he can challenge for another podium overall.
Qualification Race
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Rider standings
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Location Information
Moto club Imola, Italy - View in Google Maps
