Jaime Busto achieved the first victory of his life in the absolute category in the second Grand Prix of the season, held in Japan, an event with two scoring days in which his teammate, Jeroni Fajardo, climbed to the top of the podium on the first day.
This is one of the most exciting World Cup starts in recent years, with three different winners in the first three scoring races. For Toni Bou, the great dominator of the last decade, this event was doubly special: on the one hand, it is always important to win at the home of Honda, and secondly to reach his 100th world championship victory. Finally, this major milestone will have to wait.
On the first lap of the race,
Adam Raga
led with a spectacular record of 8 points, followed by
Toni Bou
with 11 and
Jaime Busto
with 12. Behind them,
Albert Cabestany
with 16 and yesterday’s winner,
Jeroni Fajardo
, with 18.
Busto’s complications on this first lap were compensated by certain mistakes by Raga at the beginning of the second lap and a Toni Bou who failed to improve his previous record. Busto, however, applied himself and matched his previous records, but compensated for the fiasco of zone two with a zero, thus achieving the best partial of the day with seven points.
The final podium, therefore, for Busto, followed by Bou and Raga. Fajardo and Cabestany, fifth, complete the top five.
Now the provisional classification is very tight, with Toni Bou leading and behind him the two Gas Gas just two points behind. And five behind, Adam Raga.
In Trial2, victory for Matteo Grattarola, followed by a great Gabriel Marcelli and Toby Martin. We also find two Spanish riders in fifth and sixth position: Marc Riba and Francesc Moret.
In Trial125 victory for Billy Green, followed by the Spaniards Eric Miquel and Pablo Suárez. In the women’s category, Emma Bristow dominated, followed by Maria Giró and Berta Abellán. In Trial2Women, victory for Alex Brancati, followed by Madeleine Hoover and Sophie Ter Jung.
JAPANESE GP RESULTS DAY 2
TrialGP Japan Day 2 Qualifying
Qualifying Trial2 Japan day 2
Qualifying Trial125 Japan day 2
TrialGPWomen Japan Day 2 Qualifying
Trial2Women Japan Day 2 Qualifying
DECLARATIONS
Jaime Busto:
“I’m very happy after taking my first win in TrialGP this weekend. After starting Friday with pole position, yesterday I started the first lap with a couple of quite avoidable mistakes that later, in the second, were impossible to recover. We finished quite close to the riders in front, except for Jeroni [Fajardo] who did a run. But today we started with a lot of desire to do well and, although we made a small mistake in zone 2, from there we were at a great level. I felt very comfortable and I’m very happy for this first win. Let’s hope it stays that way.”
Jeroni Fajardo:
“It’s been a great weekend. I’m very happy for my victory, for Jaime’s and for the whole team. With results like this, we’re showing that we can be at the front. Yesterday’s race was brutal, I still can’t believe it. Not just because I won, but because of how the race went. I started first, but I came out very strong, with a lot of confidence and chaining zero after zero. It was spectacular! Now it’s time to think about the next race in Andorra to continue fighting.”
Toni Bou:
“I’m happy to get back to the good feeling on the bike today. In the end, the weekend wasn’t so bad, especially because we have to take into account that this is a different year for us, as we have had an injury that has prevented us from maintaining the usual training schedule to prepare for the World Championship; I still have discomfort and for me it’s still difficult to find the race rhythm. I’m struggling with everything a lot despite getting the win in the first race. We will continue to fight to recover from the injury and be able to train again to fight in this championship that is very tight.”
Takahisa Fujinami:
“After yesterday’s podium, today I wanted to fight again to be at the top in this second race at home, but that wasn’t possible. I had a lot of mistakes, too many fiascos on the first lap, and despite having a good second lap, I couldn’t do much more. I can’t be too happy with my position today, especially here in Japan, but we’ll fight to improve in the next races.”
VIDEOS TRIALGP JAPAN 2018
