European Handy Bridgestone Cup:
the season got underway in Spain
The European Handy Bridgestone Cup raced the first round of the season in perfect conditions in the sunny Angel Nieto Circuit at Jerez de la Frontera, Spain.
The event took place together with ESBK, the Superbike Spanish Championship, with the perfect organization of RFME, the Real Federación Motociclista Española.
The Qualifying Practice was scheduled for Saturday morning and 10 riders reached the Qualification criteria for the races.
Race 1 took place on Saturday afternoon in sunny and warm weather conditions. During the first laps Italian riders Lorenzo Picasso, Emiliano Malagoli and Ivo Arnoldi fired up a very close battle for the first position in class 1000. At the end of ten laps of challenges, Picasso took the win ahead of Malagoli and Jacopo Gullà. Arnoldi was first in Lesser Impaired category.
Italian domination in class 600 too, with Maximilian Sontacchi first, Iacopo Gardiol second and Vito Pisanello third. Spanish rider Antonio Montoya won Lesser Impaired category.
Race 2 kicked off on Sunday morning. As in Race 1, in class 1000 Picasso, Malagoli and Arnoldi engaged an epic battle for the victory. Picasso and Malagoli had a very close finish and Picasso won for just 53 thousandths of a second. Third position for Gullà. Another win for Arnoldi in Lesser Impaired
Same story in class 600, with Sontacchi who replicated the great performance of Race 1 by winning Race 2. Second position for Pisanello. Unlucky day for Gardiol, who was forced to the withdraw due to a technical problem. Another win for Montoya in Lesser Impaired category.
