Baldassarri storms onto second place on the grid at Balaton

At the premiere of the Balaton Park Circuit, Dynavolt Intact GP rider Lorenzo Baldassarri secured an excellent starting position for Saturday's two sprints with second place on the grid. His teammate Hector Garzo, on the other hand, will start his title defence mission from the fourth row.

For Lorenzo Baldassarri, the start on the 4.08-kilometre track, just a stone's throw from Lake Balaton, was almost flawless. The Italian, who had already trained on the Hungarian track in the summer, consistently remained in the top 10 in both free practice and practice session. After finishing seventh in the opening session, the 28-year-old followed up with a 1'46.490 in practice to take fourth place – equivalent to direct entry into Q2. There, he improved significantly once again: with a brilliant 1'45.788, the MotoE rookie secured the second place on the grid and thus a fantastic starting position for the two 8-lap sprints on Saturday.

Hector Garzo had significantly more work to do. The reigning MotoE world champion is one of the few MotoE riders who had not yet had the opportunity to train at the Balaton Park Circuit. The stop-and-go nature of the track demanded everything from the riders, but the 27-year-old also found noticeably more speed in practice. With a time improvement of over a second, he finished tenth, but this was not enough to qualify directly for Q2. In the subsequent Q1, Garzo was able to improve again, but his 1'46.280 was once again not enough to advance. This means that the rider with starting number 1 will start from eleventh place in row four on Saturday.

The two MotoE races will take place on Saturday at 12:10 p.m. and 4:10 p.m. (CEST).

Results

Free Practice
1.   Mattia CASADEI/ ITA – 1'46.580
2.   Matteo FERRARI/ ITA – 1'46.632 (+0.052)
3.   Nicholas SPINELLI/ ITA – 1'46.819 (+0.239)
7.   Lorenzo BALDASSARRI/ ITA – 1'47.565 (+0.985)
13. Hector GARZO/ SPA – 1'48.272 (+1.692)

Practice
1.   Mattia CASADEI/ ITA – 1'45.840
2.   Tibor Erik VARGA/ HUN – 1'46.462 (+0.622)
4.   Lorenzo BALDASSARRI/ ITA – 1'46.490 (+0.650)
10. Hector GARZO/ SPA – 1'47.224 (+1.384)

Q1
1. Matteo FERRARI7 ITA – 1'46.139
2. Jacopo HOSCIUC/ ROU – 1'46.227 (+0.088)
3. Hector GARZO/ SPA – 1'46.280 (+0.141)

Q2
1. Mattia CASADEI/ ITA – 1'45.600
2. Lorenzo BALDASSARRI/ ITA – 1'45.788 (+0.188)
3. Eric GRANADO/ BRA – 1'45.872 (+0.272)