The Avant Ajo MotoE rider qualifies in sixth position after an intense day of work at Le Mans on opening day of Round 2.

The FIM MotoE World Cup experienced a busy Friday at the Le Mans circuit, to open Round 2. In the morning, Hikari Okubo completed two solid Free Practice sessions that helped him recover his feeling. In the afternoon, the Japanese took part in Q1 and Q2, qualifying in sixth position for the starting grid of the two races that will take place this weekend.

FP1 was held in dry conditions, despite the low temperatures at the French track in the morning. Okubo approached this session calmly, completing 10 laps that enabled him to check his feeling aboard the Avant Ajo MotoE bike. He finished seventh after stopping the clock at 1:46.453 on his final attempt.

In FP2, which was held under higher temperatures, a red flag caused by a crash delayed the action by several minutes. After the restart, Okubo lowered his morning time by almost two seconds, to a 1:44.848 that put him in 10th position.

Okubo easily made his way out of Q1, placing second with a 1:44.327. Then clocked his fastest time of the day in Q2: a 1:43.872 qualified him sixth for the two contest set for this round.

Tomorrow at 4:25 PM local time, Okubo will take on the first race of the weekend, scheduled for eight laps.

Results – Qualifying session
1. Mattia Casadei 1:43.559
2. Dominique Aegerter 1:43.560 +0.001
3. Kevin Zannoni 1:43.580 +0.021
4. Eric Granado 1:43.782 +0.223
5. Jordi Torres 1:43.862 +0.303
6. Hikari Okubo (Avant Ajo MotoE) 1:43.872 +0.313

78 HIKARI OKUBO

“I have finished Friday with a good feeling, since we qualified on the second row of the grid and that gives us the chance be able to fight for a good result in the two races this weekend. After the first qualifying session we made a small modification to the bike that allowed us to take a step forward in Q2. Today we lapped in very consistent and fairly fast times, which is important. We will have to see what the weather conditions are like tomorrow, since at Le Mans it can start raining at any time. The important thing is that we enjoyed today and that we feel prepared for both races. Once again, we will give one hundred percent to try to achieve a good result.”