Albaida (Spain) 20 April 2024 – The first day of the Junior European Championship, reserved for the youngest riders of the Supermoto future generation, saw defending champion Andrea Benvenuti (KTM Mtr Racing) being the fastest rider of all the sessions. Second place went to Ukrainian Yevsevii Kovalyov (Husqvarna), new face of this Championship, and the front row was rounded off by Nathan Terraneo (Ktm).
SM Junior Free Practices
Benvenuti made clear he is the rider to defeat. From the first laps Andrea seemed comfortable riding at the Spanish track and set the best performance. Second qualified was Yevsevii Kovalyov, who made his first appearance in the Junior European Championship, and third place went to Belgian Mattia Maimonte. Weak performances for Nathan Terraneo and Leonardo Lapadula in this first session.
SM Junior Free Practice Top Ten:
BENVENUTI Andrea (ITA, KTM) 1:07.894; 2. KOVALYOV Yevsevii (UKR, Husqvarna) 1:08.194; 3. MAIMONTE Mattia (BEL, TM) 1:09.383; 4. BERECZKI David Zsolt (HUN, Husqvarna) 1:10.014; 5. TERRANEO Nathan (SUI, KTM) 1:10.830; 6. LAPADULA Leonardo (ITA, TM) 1:10.868; 7. BANG Lorenz (GER, KTM) 1:13.389; 8. NAVARRO BENCOMO Aaron (ESP, Husqvarna) 1:14.708; 9. FERNANDEZ PEREZ Juan Carlos (ESP, KTM) 1:18.930; 10. IRZYK Liliana (POL, KTM) 1:33.694
SM Junior time practice
The qualifying started with the best time set by Benvenuti, but Kovalyov responded and moved to first place. After some laps Benvenuti pulled a storming lap out of the hat which secured him the pole position and allowed him to open a gap of more than six-tenths of a second. First row was rounded off by Nathan Terraneo. Second row went to Mattia Maimonte, joined by Leonardo Lapadule while Hungarian David Zsolt Bereczki was sixth.
According to the schedule, tomorrow’s heats will proclaim the first winner of this season.
SM Junior Time Practice Top Ten:
BENVENUTI Andrea (ITA, KTM) 1:05.315; 2. KOVALYOV Yevsevii (UKR, Husqvarna) 1:05.965; 3. TERRANEO Nathan (SUI, KTM) 1:06.730; 4. MAIMONTE Mattia (BEL, TM) 1:07.798; 5. LAPADULA Leonardo (ITA, TM) 1:08.344; 6. BERECZKI David Zsolt (HUN, Husqvarna) 1:09.490; 7. NAVARRO BENCOMO Aaron (ESP, Husqvarna) 1:09.822; 8. BANG Lorenz (GER, KTM) 1:11.242; 9. FERNANDEZ PEREZ Juan Carlos (ESP, KTM) 1:17.440; 10. IRZYK Liliana (POL, KTM) 1:24.527
Time Table:
SUNDAY: 09.20 Warm Up – 10.45 Race 1 – 13.00 Race 2
Complete results available HERE.
In the photo: Andrea Benvenuti (KTM)
