GP San Marino 3.9.2011 - Qualifying Practice

Miroslav Popov performed excellently in the WC Saturday qualifying for the lowest 125cc class when he had the 6th fastest time and will start from the second row for the San Marino GP race on Sunday.

Don’t forget that for the sixteen-year old Czech racing on a non-series motorbike with a wild card it is only his third involvement in the motorbike championship elite environment.

On Friday Popov’s time was 1´45.594 seconds at Misano thus raising his personal best. “I am happy with the first day of practice runs I managed to achieve a time that I had already made here during the Italian CIV Championship,” said Popov on Friday afternoon. “It is a good start and tomorrow I will try to improve on it and get a good position on the starting grid.”

And Popov´s team has actually achieved this. He was faster on Saturday morning and got under the limit of one minute and thirty-five seconds and finished in 1'44.558 seconds in the third practice session. It was a very good starting point before the qualifying itself but no one could anticipate how perfectly this rider born in Vlckovice v Podkrkonoší would take advantage of it.

Miroslav Popov certainly surprised his competitors when he started to fight for positions around the top ten. He improved his pace each time he came onto the track and at the end of the qualifying he had a lap of 1´44.255 seconds which put him in the second row for tomorrow’s start.

#95 Miroslav Popov (ElleGi Racing)
p6, time 1´44.255 second

“I am extremely happy with sixth position. It´s fantastic! I can’t believe I will start from the second row on the starting grid. It´s like a dream. The bike was perfect and everything went on smoothly. This morning we tested some improvements that proved to be correct. This allowed me to concentrate on just riding itself and to give everything I could. I hope that I will make a good start and fight for the best possible result tomorrow. I am losing in the fast sections because of my motorbike but I have to make up for it in the more technical ones. I managed to keep a good pace during the practice and run alone without any help from others. I would like to thank my team as they are doing a really good job and give me a feeling of reliability.”