Hikari Okubo completes the first two Free Practice sessions of the year and finished twelfth on the combined timesheets on Friday.

The 2021 FIM MotoE World Cup season started on Friday at the Jerez-Angel Nieto Circuit, coinciding with the Spanish Grand Prix, as the first two Free Practice sessions were held. Avant Ajo MotoE rider Hikari Okubo did a good job, concentrating on familiarizing himself with the team’s bike and the series itself. At the end of the day, the Japanese rider was 12th in the combined FP1 and FP2 standings.

The day began with a 30-minute Free Practice session. Hikari Okubo finished FP1 in eleventh position, after stopping the clock at 1:49.164. In his process of adapting to the electric motorcycle competition, the Avant Ajo MotoE rider continued to put valuable kilometres and experience under his belt, completing 8 laps of the Andalusian track.

FP2 was affected by an early red flag that forced the session to be interrupted for several minutes. Okubo waited patiently and, once the practice resumed, continued working on improving his feeling and his confidence onboard his MotoE machine. The Japanese finished in 12th position with a time of 1:49.654.

The Avant Ajo MotoE rider will have a final 30-minute Free Practice session tomorrow morning. In the afternoon, at 4:05 PM local time, qualifying to decide the first E-Pole of the year will begin.

Results (Combined practice times FP1-FP2)

1. Eric Granado 1:48.057
2. Dominique Aegerter 1:48.134 +0.077
3. Miquel Pons 1:48.547 +0.400
4. Jordi Torres 1:48.568 +0.511
5. Xavi Cardelus 1:48.596 +0.539
12. Hikari Okubo (Avant Ajo MotoE) 1:49.164 +1.107

78 HIKARI OKUBO

“Today was a bit of a difficult day for me, as my feeling was somewhat different from in the test. We had to work hard to solve several aspects throughout the two Free Practice sessions. Now we have to sit down with the team and analyse what we can do to improve. The positive thing is that tomorrow’s E-Pole is over a single lap and, in the simulation, we did in the pre-season, I felt good. As always, we will do our best to have a great performance on Saturday.”