01/07/2023

Hot Portimao roller coaster awaits Intact juniors

This weekend, JuniorGP series will pitch its tents at what is probably the most demanding race track on the calendar in southern Portugal. In addition, a heat battle awaits the junior guard.

After a slightly longer break, teams and young racers of the FIM JuniorGP™ World Championship, Moto2™ European Championship and European Talent Cup are entering the fourth round of the season. The venue is the Autódromo Internacional do Algarve, which lies just a stone's throw away in the hilly outback of the coastline of the same name. The track is famous for its varied and selective course. The current hot temperatures make matters even spicier.

The German LIQUI MOLY Husqvarna Intact GP Junior Team is fully represented. While Senna Agius and Mohammed Abdalaziz Binladin had three weekends off in June, the team’s two Moto3 riders Jakob Rosenthaler and Leo Rammerstorfer were successfully chasing points first in Italy and then last weekend in the Netherlands in the Red Bull Rookies Cup races.

Although Senna Agius had to settle for third place at the last event in Jerez de la Frontera after three wins in a row, the talent from Australia continues to lead the points table in the Moto2 European Championship. In the highly competitive JuniorGP™ Moto3 class, Jakob Rosenthaler from Upper Austria has developed into a consistent points scorer, while his compatriot Leo Rammerstorfer is showing a very decent learning curve so far in his rookie season on a proper race bike, and in the European Talent Cup Mohammed Abdalaziz Binladin from Saudi Arabia has his sights set on a place in the main race.

For the 2023 season, there are significant changes to the schedule for Saturday and Sunday. As with the Grand Prix, the morning warm-up has been dropped for all classes and the qualifying format for the Moto3 class has been adapted to be the same as in the Grand Prix, with a Q1 and a Q2. For Moto2 and the European Talent Cup, however, everything remains the same: two 40-minute qualifying sessions with a combined timesheet used as a ranking for the grid.

On race day, as usual, there will be a live stream via the series' YouTube channel, as well as live timing starting Friday.

The weekend’s schedule (CEST, Live-Timing):

Saturday 1 July: 10:00 - 10:40 QP1 ETC Gr A

Saturday 1 July: 10:50 - 11:30 QP1 ETC Gr B

Saturday 1 July: 11:40 - 12:20 Practice JuniorGP™ Moto3™

Saturday 1 July: 12:30 - 13:10 QP1 Moto2™ ECh

Saturday 1 July: 13:20 - 14:00 QP1 Stock ECh

Saturday 1 July: 14:10 - 14:25 Q1 JuniorGP™ Moto3™

Saturday 1 July: 14:35 - 15:15 QP2 ETC Gr A

Saturday 1 July: 15:25 - 16:05 QP2 ETC Gr B

Saturday 1 July: 16:15 - 16:30 Q2 JuniorGP™ Moto3™

Saturday 1 July: 16:40 - 17:20 QP2 Moto2™ ECh