Yamane on Pole with New Lap Record at Donington Park
Japan’s Shoma Yamane took his second consecutive pole position of the season at Round 4 of the FIM Yamaha R3 bLU cRU World Cup in Donington Park, setting a new lap record of 1’44.682.
The morning’s Free Practice was held in difficult conditions for the riders with chilly temperatures and overnight rain necessitating the use of wet tyres throughout the session. Spain’s Marc Vich was quickest in the morning, more than eight tenths of a second ahead of Eduardo Burr and Dawid Nowak.
In the afternoon’s Superpole, Yamane showed his pace from the very beginning, setting lap after lap at the top of the timesheets. The 18-year-old scored two top ten finishes last year at the British track, and this season he is feeling ever more comfortable with his R3; last time out in Misano he took his debut pole, and in Donington he followed this up with another fastest lap and a second consecutive pole.
At his favourite circuit, title-contender Vich was able to jump to second on the grid, and Poland’s Nowak completed the front row.
Championship Leader Gonzalo Sanchez will start his debut Donington race from seventh on the grid.
Shoma Yamane:“In this morning’s practice I didn’t have a good feeling and it was difficult to set a good time, I was only eighth. I worked together with the Yamaha mechanics and we changed some things such as the suspension settings. In the afternoon my feeling was much better, I attacked and focused on doing many good laps, this ended in a new lap record and pole position so I feel very happy and I want to thank everyone at Yamaha for their support.”
FULL RESULTS – R3 bLU cRU – FREE PRACTICE
FULL RESULTS – R3 bLU cRU – SUPERPOLE
Race 1 will be held at 16:15 local time, 16:15 CET, on Saturday July 13th.
