Red Bull KTM Tech3’s Daniel Holgado and Filippo Farioli kicked off their fifth round of the Moto3™ World Championship in sunny and fresh Le Mans on Friday for their team’s home Grand Prix. Spaniard Holgado headed to the French Grand Prix with the championship lead, while teammate Farioli was coming from a positive Spanish Grand Prix in Jerez, two weeks ago.

The week off following the Spanish Grand Prix was a good opportunity for Daniel Holgado to get some serious treatment on his arm pump injury which showed up in Austin, and relapsed in Jerez at the last round. Still topping the standings after four rounds, the Spaniard kicked off his French GP eager to do well on his team’s home turf. In the morning, he had already settled within the fastest group of riders, finishing fifth of the practice 1 with a fastest lap in 1’43.256. In the afternoon, the young boy continued his progression and improved his lap times, with a personal best in 1’42.259. He closed the Top 5 of Friday’s action, 0.413 seconds from today’s fastest man. There will be a final practice tomorrow morning at 08:40 (GMT+2), before the qualifying sessions in the afternoon.

After four rounds and a positive Jerez test, rookie Filippo Farioli was hitting the French layout for the first time in Grand Prix. This morning he rode his fastest lap in 1’44.174 which placed him in nineteenth of P1. In the afternoon session, the young Italian appeared both comfortable and confident on his KTM and significantly improved his lap time to 1’42.708 (1.466 seconds faster than P1), a huge progress and boost of confidence for Farioli. He completes the day in P11 in the combined standings, meaning that he has a provisional ticket for Q2 to defend on Saturday morning. Don’t miss the Moto3™ action tomorrow as both boys will look to get the best grid positions they can on their team’s home turf.

“I am very happy with my first day in Le Mans. The bike continues to work well, the pace is strong, so I look forward to seeing what we can do tomorrow. Thank you to my team for their amazing job today.”

“We did a very good job today with the team, especially in Practice 2. The bike works well, and finishing in P11 obviously gives me more confidence for qualifying tomorrow. We have another Practice 3 tomorrow to secure my place in Q2, so we will have to continue working hard in the morning. Very happy about today, looking forward to Saturday.”