World Supersport Championship, Valencia
In the last race at Portimáo Alex crossed the line on a fine 13:th place and took his first World Championship points. This time it was time for the Spanish round at Valencia and the goal was to take the chequered flag at an even better position.
Friday
Alex startet the weekend good and was 14:th after the first qualification with the time 1`38.6.
Saturday
On the saturday it was time for the second free practice and now Alex really started to get on the move. The best recorded lap of the session was 1´37.7 wich meant a tenth place of twenty riders. On the second qualification of the weekend Alex had expectations of going even faster after the good results in the morning session. Unfortunately it didnt go as Alex and the Cresto Guide Racing Team hade hoped.
-We tried out a new front tire on the qualification wich generates more grip than the tires we used on the morning session, but the tires didnt seem to like the high asphalt-temperature, says team manager Michael Larsson.
After a couple of laps Alex went in to the pits to change to the tires that he was comfortable with earlyer on the day, but he managed only two laps before he crashed. It wasn´t a serious crash but there wasn´t enough time for him to get out on his second bike. He improved his time a little bit comparing to the fridays qualification, 1`38.3 was Alex best laptime on this days qualification wich meant a 15:th place on the grid.
Sunday Warm up training
The team mounted the tires that Alex was comfortable with and the results came immediately. Alex drove faster then ever on the Ricardo Tormo track at Valencia with a time of 1´37.3. It was a very good session and Alex was in a good condition for the race.
Race
Alex made a bad start, but he advanced quickly trough the field. The high asphalt temperature worsened the grip radicaly and the laptimes sank with 1.5 seconds over all for all the riders. Because of the bad grip a lot of riders crashed, about half of the riders were in fron of Alex and the rest were slower then him on the track. Alex managed to stay on his wheels and could with four laps left pass his danish competitor Robbin Harms and cross the finishline on a very qualified eight position.
-I made a very bad start, but could quite quickly advance trough the field. It was bad circumstances durin the race with bad grip on the track. The grip level was low compared to the morning session and it was shown on the laptimes on all the riders. I´m really happy with the eight place and eight new World Championship points. It also feals really good to have catched up the riders in front in terms of speed. Compared to the first two races in Australia and Portugal were I was 1-1.5 seconds slower than the riders in front of me it really went well here in Spain and I could cach up on them, says a happy Alex after the race.
Next is in Assen Holland in two weeks time.
Cresto Guide Racing Team
