Maria Herrera won FIM World Women’s Circuit Racing Race 1 Saturday afternoon at Balaton Park Circuit, in Hungary. Riding her Terra & Vita GRT Yamaha YZF-R7 on Pirelli control tires, Herrera won the 9-lap race by 0.263 second.
Beatriz Neila was the runner-up on her Ampito Crescent Yamaha YZF-R7, and Paola Ramos got third on her Klint Racing Yamaha YZF-R7, 0.414 second behind race winner Herrera.
American Mallory Dobbs finished the race 17th her YVS Sabadell Diva Racing Yamaha YZF-R7.
Maria Herrera leads the championship with 115 points, 18 ahead of Beatriz Neila who has 97 points. Roberta Ponziani is third with 65 points.
wwscr race 1
More from a press release issued by WorldSBK:
Herrera outguns Neila and Ramos in late battle for P1 in Balaton Park’s opening race. Herrera and Neila share the podium for the 17th time, a standing WorldWCR record.
The FIM Women’s Circuit Racing World Championship had the honour of kicking off the Motul Hungarian Round as the first race of the weekend and they took full advantage. Maria Herrera (Terra & Vita GRT Yamaha WorldWCR) Rang in the weekend by winning the category’s third-ever race at the Balaton Park Circuit for 15 career WorldWCR race victories, more than half of the 29 total races in the category. Beatriz Neila (Ampito Crescent Yamaha) chased her home to take the second step of the rostrum and Paola Ramos (Klint Racing Team) rounded out the podium finishers with her fourth career rostrum result.
HERRERA MAKES UP THE DEFICIT: Starts from P4, finishes on the top step
The race had been originally set for 11 laps, however after a Warm Up lap crash by Emily Bondi (FT Racing Academy), which ruled her out of the competition, the delay limited the event to 9 Laps. Once we got underway, Beatriz Neila (Ampito Crescent Yamaha) took the holeshot from P2, Herrera already up into P2 and Ramos to P3 by Turn 10 of the opening lap. By Lap 3, Herrera stole the lead on Turn 5 as the pair climbed to +1.2s clear of Ramos in P3 behind them. Slowly but surely, Klint Racing teammates Paola Ramos and Roberta Ponziani cut away at the gap to the race leaders to just four tenths from P1 with four laps to go. The #58 began to give Neila grief from behind, forcing her to focus on defending her second place until the start of the last lap. By then, Neila had closed to just a quarter of a second, but it was too little too late as Herrera took her fifteenth career win. While Neila loses five points to Herrera, the #36’s record podium streak continues to grow to 19 straight. Ramos’s effort lands the third rostrum result of her rookie season; the trio having dropped Ponziani behind them in the final two laps, who finished P4 two seconds behind them.
SARAPUECH HANGS ON: The Thai rider holds off Rivera and Jones for a P5 finish
Behind the battle for the race win, despite a good jump off the line into the top three positions, on the crunch into Turn 1, Sarapuech fell back to her starting position of P7. She went to work in the opening laps to climb to P5, winning an early battle with Natalia Rivera (Terra & Vita GRT Yamaha WorldWCR Team) and later on Chloe Jones (Monster Energy Crescent Yamaha), who made a charge in the final laps but was held to P6. Rivera finished behind the pair for seventh, still an improvement on her P9 grid start.
MADRIGAL P10: The Mexican rider takes her second top ten of the season so far
Pakita Ruiz (PR46+1 Racing Team) started from the first row for the first time this season, but she was unable to make it stick as she fell to a P8 finish; outgunned in the final laps by just under a quarter of a second. Lucie Boudesseul (GMT94 Yamaha) was the next rider up, just a further two tenths back in P9 at the back of the second group. Rounding out the top ten, Astrid Madrigal (Pons Italika Racing FIMLA) climbed one position from her P11 grid start to take P10.
The top six from the WorldWCR Race 1: Full results here!
1. Maria Herrera (Terra & Vita GRT Yamaha WorldWCR)
2. Beatriz Neila (Ampito Crescent Yamaha) +0.263s
3. Paola Ramos (Klint Racing Team) +0.414s
4. Roberta Ponziani (Klint Racing Team) +2.355s
5. Muklada Sarapuech (EEST NJT Racing Team) +13.728s
6. Chloe Jones (Monster Energy Crescent Yamaha) +13.956s
Fastest lap: Paola Ramos – 1’52.544s, new lap record
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