TERRANOVA AND METGE LEAD OVERALL AFTER FIRST STAGE
The first day of Baja Espana Aragon 2019 consisted of two special stages and started this morning from the Palace of Exhibitions and Congresses of Teruel with the cars tackling the northern track (164.7 kilometers) while the bikes heading to the south (86 kilometers), both going on to complete also the other track later.
In the first special stage of the day for cars, the Argentine Orlando Terranova finished with a 41” advantage over Jakub Przygonski (POL) and 1’01” over Spain’s Nani Roma. Martin Prokop (CZE) and Bernhard Ten Brinke (BEL) completed the top five. “We went out to look for a good pace and suffered a puncture at kilometer 50, I tried to calm down, recover the pace and now it’s time to manage for tomorrow and make an intelligent race to achieve our first victory in the Baja,” he explained.
One of the surprises at the start of Baja Espana Aragon was the result of 2018 winner and current Baja World Cup leader Vladimir Vasilyev. The Russian driver was trailing Terranova at 4’09” at the end of the first special of the day.
The dominance of Terranova continued in the second special, on the southern track, the Argentine extending his overall lead with another stage win. Terranova finished 49” in front of the Belgian Ten Brinke. Third was Martin Prokop at 1’04”, fourth Joao Ramos at 1’54” and fifth Nani Roma at 2’36”.
The Catalan, nine times winner in Baja Aragón has suffered in the final part of the second special where he lost time on Terranova after suffering problems in the gearbox of the Mini All 4 Racing, but the team managed to repair the car for Saturday’s second leg.
The biggest loss of the first day of Baja Aragon was suffered by reigning champion Vladimir Vasilyev who closes this first day at 8’11” from the leader. The current World Cup leader has not been comfortable with the performance of the Toyota Hilux.
Thus, after the first two timed stages, Orlando Terranova leads the provisional overall classification (3:14:41) followed by Martin Prokop at 3’17”, Jakub Pryzgonski at 3’22” and Spain’s Nani Roma is fourth 3’37” from the provisional leader. In the Spanish Championship, the first day of competition ended with Nani Roma in the lead in the overall classification, followed by Luis J. Recuenco and Fernando Alvarez.
Spanish adventurer Jesus Calleja is in 17th position first stage, just a few places ahead of Gerard Farres and Cristina Gutierrez who finished the day in the top 30.
In bikes, Michael Metge began the day clocking the best time in the southern track (86 kilometers). The French Sherco rider was 2’40” ahead of the second-placed Spanish Joan Pedrero. Another Spanish rider, Lorenzo Santolino finished in third position 3’11” from the winner.
In the race in the northern track, held this afternoon, Metge won the special stage ahead of Joan Pedrero, with an advantage of 1’04”. The third position went for another Tosha Schareina.
In the female classification, Rosa Romero finished the day in first position followed by Sara Garcia and Margot Llobera. In quads, Dani Vila leads the World Cup overall. In trucks, Martin Macik leads after stage 1 .
The race to finish on Saturday
The second and final day of the rally will take place tomorrow with the last two special stages. The cars will start at 7:00 am towards the south section of 86 km while the bikes will depart from the Palace of Exhibitions and Congresses to the north section (164 kilometers) at 6.30 am.
The prizegiving ceremony is scheduled for 16.30 in the Palace of Exhibitions and Congresses of Teruel.