Maximo Quiles robbed fellow Spaniard Angel Piqueras of his fourth Red Bull Rookies Cup victory on the run in to the line chased by Álvaro Carpe for an all-Spanish Jerez podium at the weekend.
The 200th Red Bull MotoGP Rookies Cup race was another stunner with Argentinian 15-year-old Marco Morelli also featuring in the lead battle for much of the race and finally taking 4th when Finnish 15-year-old Rico Salmela was dropped a place for exceeding track limits on the final lap of his brilliant late race charge.
New Zealand’s Cormac Buchanan was among those who had dreams of being added to the list of top performers at the weekend and the young man from Invercargill managed to finish 15th in the first race and claimed 14th in race two.
Buchanan (pictured above on bike No.14) now finds himself ranked 16th overall out of the 25 entrants after two rounds in the series.
“I had a really bad start back in 20th at the end of lap one, so I was happy with the comeback to P14,” said Buchanan.
“In the last laps when I got to the front of the group I was able to stay there and do a good pace in the later stages of the race, which is positive.
“It’s not how I wished the weekend went – very difficult at times, but a points finish in both races is a good salvage job. It was also really cool to be racing in front of the Spanish crowd … an awesome experience.
“Now it’s time to focus for round one of the FIM Junior GP World Championships in Estoril (in Portugal) this coming weekend.
“A huge thank you to everyone who supports me, not an easy weekend but it will make those good weekends feel sweeter.”
However, it was the 15-year-old Quiles who did most of the leading in race two at Jerez, after a superb start from pole position, but 16-year-old Piqueras was quickly into a close second.
The 15-year-old Carpe had a lot of work to do from 10th on the grid but wasted no time and soon made it a KTM trio that the rest of the pack struggled to match.
Saturday’s podium man Jacob Roulstone, and Ruche Moodley, along with Salmela, all played a part in towing the chasing pack back into contention but it never quite stuck.
“Not so bad, a very good race, I had very good rhythm,” said Quiles.
“When I saw that we had quite a lot of gap over the main group I slowed down a bit to give the tyres a rest but increased the pace again when the gap closed.”
“I had quite a lot of confidence. In the last lap, I knew that he was going to try it, so I prepared for the better exit. The only problem was that I was on the left side and I am not used to brake there so I didn’t have my usual reference I braked very badly and he could overtake me.
“Then I got a better exit and I could finish first.
“I know I have to keep finishing in front of him, I have very good rhythm and I think I can do it.”
© Photo courtesy Red Bull Rookies
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