Repsol Honda Team earn one-two finish in Andorra
Saint Julià de LòriaToni Bou takes a third consecutive victory outdoors, whilst Gabriel Marcelli claims second place.
Toni Bou takes a third consecutive victory outdoors, whilst Gabriel Marcelli claims second place.
There was a great opening to the weekend in Sant Julià de Lòria (Andorra) for the Repsol Honda Team riders, who achieved their second one-two of the TrialGP season. Toni Bou was the winner, with teammate Gabriel Marcelli runner-up.
Bou showed that he knows the terrain very well and on the twelve action zones he was in fine form, placing himself at the top of the pile with 12 penalty points, followed by Jaime Busto and Miquel Gelabert. On the second lap, the Repsol Honda rider fine-tuned things and before reaching Zone 9, was already mathematically confirmed as the winner of the race. It was a third consecutive victory for Bou.
Marcelli had a difficult opening to the day in Andorra. On the first lap, despite starting out fighting for the podium positions, mistakes on the last three action zones and two time penalties dropped him to fifth position. On the second lap, the Montesa Cota 4RT rider pushed to the limit and, after a tough fight with Jaime Busto and Matteo Grattarola, claimed second place.
Bou remains leader of the overall standings with 60 points, and Marcelli regains second position with 49 points. On Sunday, the second race will be held in the town of Sant Julia de Lòria, starting at 9am.
I am very happy with today's result, at what I consider my second home round. We have trained a lot and the team have done a very good job in recent weeks to prepare the bike for the altitude. It has been an almost perfect day and we took some very important points for the championship. For tomorrow there is a forecast of rain and things get very tricky here when it rains. We will see how the terrain is and also how the zones change, but the important thing is to try to maintain the feeling from today.
The day went very well. I am very happy with the second position, and even more so here in Andorra, which is somewhere I usually find things more difficult. On the first lap I made more mistakes, but luckily on the second lap I was more precise and I managed to take second place. In addition, we have moved into second place overall, so I am very happy. There is rain expected tomorrow, so the terrain will change a lot, but we will do our best to be on the podium again. I want to thank the team for their incredible work today.
It's been a very positive day for the entire team. Toni was incredible, and before finishing the second lap he was already mathematically the winner. He has shown a great level this year. Gabri had a difficult start to the day; his usual assistant was unwell, so he was replaced by another member of the team. Despite this, he gave it his best and fought until the end. Second place is important for the championship. The team have worked very well and I want to thank them for all the effort they have put in to achieve these great results.
