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KTM Red Bull Teka Factory Team rider Steffi Laier got pole-position for tomorrow’s fifth round of the FIM Women’s Motocross World Championship after winning today’s qualifying race in Senkvice, Slovakia.
KTM Sarholz rider Larissa Papenmeier was in charge of the holeshot with Francesca Nocera right behind but soon Laier stole the lead away from fellow German after passing Nocera who went down another position.
Chiara Fontanesi, who had been the fastest on free and pre-qualifying sessions, went after the two KTM’s at the front and eventually got pass Papenmeier who kept with the Italian on a very similar pace for some laps.
In fourth came Francesca Nocera followed by Britt van der Wekken. While these two were finishing with twelve seconds between them, it was the fight for sixth place that was getting the crowd’s attention with Justine Charroux and Sara Pettersson. The French ended up in front with the Regenta Racing rider not too far behind.
Swiss rider Virginie Germond finished eighth very close to the Swede, and the battle for best Eastern rider may have just begun as Jana Antosova from the Czech Republic and our WMX regular and sixth on pre-qualifying, Polish rider Joanna Miller, closed the top-ten.
Stephanie Laier: “I felt ok with the track although the start is very strange, I belove more than a half of us wheeled while getting out of the gate and also me, I was like seventh or eighth. After two laps I was first and I tried this time to ride ‘smooth’. It’s not difficult to ride here but it’s not much technical, it’s like wide open, I would prefer if it would rain...”
Larissa Papenmeier: ”At the beginning I had to look for my lines but I had fun riding. The track is awesome, Laier and Chiara passed me but in some parts I was faster and on others it was her… It’s ok for the qualifying race.”
Chiara Fontanesi: “I believe I can be good tomorrow as I like the track; it’s just a little bit too fast and that’s why it will be difficult to make the difference here. I had a bad start but when I got to second I was only checking on my speed and Steffi’s lines. Larissa is fast on other tracks but here she’s very fast so there will be some nice battles tomorrow for sure.”
WMX Qualifying Race top-ten: 1. Stephanie Laier (GER, KTM), 19:57.829; ; 2. Chiara Fontanesi (ITA, Yamaha), +0:08.674; 3. Larissa Papenmeier (GER, KTM), +0:09.334; 4. Francesca Nocera (ITA, KTM), +0:47.047; 5. Britt van der Wekken (NED, Honda), +0:59.775; 6. Justine Charroux (FRA, Yamaha), +1:03.541; 7. Sara Pettersson (SWE, KTM), +1:07.520; 8. Virginie Germond (SUI, Suzuki), +1:09.135; 9. Jana Antosova (CZE, KTM), +1:11.364; 10. Joanna Miller (POL, KTM), +1:15.291;
