Makar Yurchenko (Reale Avintia Academy) nabbed his first pole in the Moto3™ Junior World Championship, after beating Jeremy Alcoba (Junior Team Estrella Galicia 0,0) by just 0.081. The Kazakhstani rider dominated the two qualifying sessions disputed in tricky conditions due to rain and became his country?s first ever rider to achieve a pole in the FIM CEV Repsol, which this weekend shares the stage with the MotoGP™ World Championship in the HJC Helmets Grand Prix of France. Together with Makar Yurchenko (Reale Avintia Academy) Jeremy Alcoba (Junior Team Estrella Galicia 0,0) and Aarón Polanco (Leopard Junior Team) will lead off from the front line of the grid in Saturday's race, after posting second and third qualifying times respectively.
In the first qualifying session, which was also the first contact of the Moto3™ Junior World Championship riders with the Le Mans circuit, Makar Yurchenko (Reale Avintia Academy) set the fastest time of 1:54.120, followed by Celestino Vietti Ramus (Junior Team VR46 Riders Academy) and Raúl Fernández (MRW Mahindra Aspar Team).
In the afternoon session, Makar Yurchenko (Reale Avintia Academy) once again was the fastest rider and set the day?s quickest time of 1:50.987, giving him his first pole ahead of Jeremy Alcoba (Junior Team Star Galicia Galicia), who trailed the Kazakhstani rider by a mere 0.081 thousandths and who had dominated part of this second qualifying session. Aarón Polanco (Leopard Junior Team) takes the third spot of the grid in a unique front row. Somkiat Chantra (AP Honda RT), poleman of the first round in Albacete, will start from the middle of a second row led by Raúl Fernández (MRW Mahindra Aspar) with Filip Salac (Montaze Broz Racing Team) in the last slot.
However, Jeremy Alcoba (Junior Team Star Galicia 0.0) will be ready to defend his overall leadership in the standings in a race where the weather might be the deciding factor, just as it was during the qualifying sessions.
Saturday's race schedule is as follows:
Moto3™ (17 laps) : 16.30
In Spain, the race will be shown live on the Movistar MotoGP channel, on Sky in Italy and on Sport TV Portugal in Portugal - which will broadcast both online and on TV. BT Sports (UK) and Eurosport through Eurosportplayer (France, Germany, Netherlands, Belgium and Romania) will also offer coverage of the Moto3™ Junior World Championship race.
Through its digital network Motor Trend OnDemand will provide coverage in the United States and much of Latin America and North America; in France, Motorsport.com will offer the race live and on demand. Its partner MotorSportTV will offer the same in these areas with live TV broadcast.
In addition, all of the races will be aired live on the Championship's Youtube channel.