Chareyre brother and Husqvarna quickest at day one in Andorra

A beautiful day gave the SuperMoto riders the start to their maiden appearance in Andorra at the Grand Prix Pas de la Casa Grandvalira.

Thomas Chareyre stormed to pole in the S1 class leading Aprilia fellow Superiders Thierry Van Den Bosch and Ivan Lazzarini as red plate holder Bernd Hiemer will also find a spot in tomorrow’s front row.

In S2 Thomas’ older brother Adrien wrapped up the pole being the only S2 Superider lapping under the one minute barrier. Davide Gozzini ended second ahead of Gerald Delepine and Christian Iddon.

Oliver Pope (S3) and Luca D’Addato (Open) took the UEM series’ poles.

Husqvarna CH Racing’s Thomas Chareyre got to grips perfectly with the highly located race track at Pas de la Casa. The Frenchman took pole at mid-session (lap 18) but carried on for further 10 laps to increase the already positive feeling with the course.

DRC SuperMoto Aprilia Factory Team mates Thierry Van Den Bosch and Ivan Lazzarini were second and third quickest respectively as VDB missed the pole by 0.083 seconds.

KTM Italia Miglio’s Bernd Hiemer showed a solid form by taking the fourth quickest spot less than half a second off Chareyre’s pole.

The first four were the only ones to have lapped under the one minute barrier displaying a pace that might leave the crowd breathless with a four way battle for victory tomorrow.

Guillaume Rigal rounded off the top five ahead of French countryman Jerome Giraudo.

Top five: 1. Thomas Chareyre (FRA, Husqvarna), 0:59.082; 2. Thierry van den Bosch (FRA, Aprilia), +0:00.083; 3. Ivan Lazzarini (ITA, Aprilia), +0:00.272; 4. Bernd Hiemer (GER, KTM), +0:00.449; 5. Guillaume Rigal (FRA, Kawasaki), +0:01.008

Matching his younger brother and team mate’s performance Husqvarna CH Racing’s Adrien Chareyre took today’s pole being the only S2 Superider lapping under the one minute barrier. The Championship leader put himself in the best spot in order to clinch the Superpole and the head of the first row.

Despite trying incredibly hard to beat Chareyre’s record latest GP winner Davide Gozzini of TM Factory Racing ended up in second place as he will restart the chase to Chareyre right from tomorrow’s Superpole.

Other Husqvarna CH Racing’s rider Gerald Delepine was a positive third, the same position that he holds in the points standings being the defending S2 Champion.

PMR H2O Aprilia Off Road’s Christian Iddon made it to a hard fought fourth as the Brit is still feeling pain to his injured wrist – he just came back to the GP scene in Austria.

Lorenzo Mariani rounded off the top five ahead of Attilio Pignotti and Luca Minutilli.

Top five: 1. Adrien Chareyre (FRA, Husqvarna), 0:59.980; 2. Davide Gozzini (ITA, TM), +0:00.266; 3. Gérald Delepine (BEL, Husqvarna), +0:00.787; 4. Christian Iddon (GBR, Aprilia), +0:00.857; 5. Lorenzo Mariani (ITA, TM), +0:01.009

S3 Championship leader Oliver Pope wrapped up the Andorran pole ahead of Championship runner up Olivier Scheen and Austrian round winner Alessandro Asnicar as tomorrow’s races might be an enthralling three way battle for victory.

Being second in the Championship Luca D’Addato enters this weekend to close in on Open Championship leader Heino Meusburger; it was so far so good for the Italian taking pole as Meusburger was fourth. Alberto Dall’Era and Edgardo Borella were second and third.

The Grandvalira Circuit is the highest located permanent racing facility in the world as it stands at 2408 metres above the sea level. The race track is made of a slide section and a double sky section making it a challenging course running anticlockwise. The layout is very twisty as the average width is close to 10 metres. There are 13 corners, six right-handers and seven left-handers.

Pas de la Casa (literally in English "Pass of the House") is part of the very well known Grandvalira resort in Andorra being its closest part to France. Pas de la Casa is located at an elevation of 2408 m above the sea level being one of the highest points on the European road network. The modernity of the area is directly linked with a busy and young night life.

Sunday September 21: EC Open and S3 Warm Up at 9:25 am; S2 Warm Up at 9:55 am with Superpole immediately after; S1 Warm Up at 10:30 am with Superpole immediately after; EC Open and S3 Race 1 at 11:35 am; S2 Race 1 at 12:25 am; S1 Race 1 at 1:25 pm; EC Open and S3 Race 2 at 2:25 pm; S2 Race 2 at 3:25 pm; S1 Race 2 at 4:25 pm

ART (Pan Middle East) : S1 Race 2 at 16:00 CET

SPORT ITALIA 24 (Digital Terrestrial-Italy) : S2 Race 2 at 15:00, S1 Race 2 at 16:00 CET

Sport TV (Slovenia) : S2 Race 2 at 15:00, S1 Race 2 at 16:00 CET

Trans 7 (Indonesia) : S2 Race 2 at 15:00, S1 Race 2 at 16:00 CET

Sport TV (Portugal) : S2 Race 2 at 15:00, S1 Race 2 at 16:00 CET

Mediazone (Worldwide) : S2 Race 2 at 15:00, S1 Race 2 at 16:00 CET

EUROSPORT 2 (Pan Europe): Sunday September 21, S1 Race 2 at 19:00 CET

SPORT ITALIA (Italy) : Sunday September 21, S2 Race 2 at 16:30, S1 Race 2 at 17:30 CET

EUROSPORT WORLD (Pan Asia): Sunday September 21, S1 Race 2 at 22:30; Monday September 22, S1 Race 2 at 21:00. Tuesday September 23, S1 Race 2 at 16:30. Thursday September 25, S1 Race 2 at 02:00 GMT

Information, photos and results are online at http://www.supermotoS1.com,  the official website of the FIM SuperMoto World Championships.

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- Daniele RIZZI -