Opening his weekend in style by going fourth-fastest on the Friday night Super Test, Andrea maintained his speed and the pressure on his rivals by delivering nine more impressive test results on Saturday’s day one. Helped in part by claiming three test wins throughout the day, Verona opened up an early lead in the morning and continued to build on it through the afternoon. Arriving at the finish over 17 seconds ahead of second-placed Nathan Watson, Andrea secured his third EnduroGP class victory of the season.
Day two wasn’t quite as straightforward for the EC 350F racer. Fighting back from placing fourth on the first test, Andrea clawed his way back up into second overall by the end of the second lap. Completing the final cross test just less than eight seconds behind the winner was enough to drop down to third. And despite topping the timesheets on the very last test, Verona was forced to settle for third in EnduroGP.
With his 1-3 results, Andrea maintains his second-place position in the EnduroGP championship standings but has closed in on the leader by a further two points. Securing a double win in Enduro2, he extends his E2 class lead to an impressive 45 points with two rounds remaining.
Andrea Verona: “Overall it’s been a good weekend here in Slovakia. It was great to take my third overall win of the season on Saturday – I was riding really well and was able to push hard all day. On Sunday, I started off a little too calmly and paid for it on the first test. I knew I had to get a little more aggressive and on lap two, I was able to get back inside the top two overall. My pace was good, but everyone was riding really well here and I just missed out on second overall by half a second. It’s been a bit on an up and down day today, but a very positive weekend on the whole. I have made up a couple of points on the championship leader, so now I’m focused on giving it full gas for the last two rounds.”
