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European Supermoto Championship at Thessaloniki (Greece)

In sunny and very hot weather conditions the fourth round of the 2018 Supermoto European Championship season started in Thessaloniki in the region of Central Macedonia of Greece. For Greece it is the second year in a row that the Championship is being organized. The race track of Drive Park is one of the best in the country and with its combination of fast and medium corners and fast straights it will give some close racing. Today the free practices and time practice were held in Thessaloniki. After his injury in Poznan, TM Factory Racing rider Thomas Chareyre is back in action and took the pole position in Greece. With a lot of riders close to each other, for sure the races of tomorrow will be full of action.

Time practice
With a lot of riders close to each other in the free practices the battle for the pole position was still totally open. Straight from the start of the practice all riders went on the track and after their outing laps, the throttle of the bikes was put open, resulting in fast lap times from the start. Nine riders were setting lap times under 1:10:00 with only hundreds and tenths of a second among them. TM Factory Racing riders Thomas Chareyre, Tuning Motorsport rider Milan Sitniansky, Degasoline rider Pavel Kejmar, SWM Factory rider Mauno Hermunen, Phoenix Racing riders Markus Class and Nicolas Cousin and KTM MTR rider Laurent Fath were fighting for every place in the top ten throughout the complete practice. Also Italian Birba Racing rider Gioele Filippetti was in the top ten again, showing that his was feeling good on the track. In lap seven Thomas Chareyre set the fastest until than of 1:08:809, but the Frenchman couldn’t enjoy his first position for long as Pavel Kejmar sharpened the fastest lap time to 1:08:799. Markus Class was in third position pushing his Husqvarna to the limit, but the German rider couldn’t get close enough to the first two riders. The fastest time was still set by Pavel Kejmar but in the very last lap of the time practice, Thomas Chareyre gave all he got and took the pole position with a time of 1:08:361.
Chareyre’s time was the fastest of the complete weekend and 00:438 seconds faster than second rider Pavel Kejmar. Behind the two riders the lap times went back to 1:09 and the battle for the first row on the grid was still open. Three riders were less than 00:100 seconds apart from each other. At the end of the practice it was Markus Class who set the third time, only 00:056 seconds in front of Mauno Hermunen in fourth. Fifth time was for the teammate of Chareyre, Diego Monticelli. The Italian was in his turn only 00:040 seconds slower than Hermunen. Last place on the second row of the starting grid for tomorrow was for KTM MTR rider Lauren Fath who set the sixth time in this time practice. With the hot weather conditions also forecasted for tomorrow and the top ten close to each other the battle for the Greek victory will be hard and full of action.
Full results on FIM Europe website: http://www.fim-europe.eu/events/595