Inaugural and reigning MotoGP™ eSport World Champion TRASTEVERE73 put in the quickest time in Free Practice for Semi-Final 1 of the 2018 Championship, and in doing so got first choice on which team he’ll race for on Friday evening. It’s 12 players who will represent each of the 12 teams, and the Italian went all-Italian as he opted to race for the Ducati Team and compete on the Desmosedici GP18 as he seeks to defend the crown.
It was close competition as Free Practice put the first pieces of the puzzle together for the Semi-Final and TRASTEVERE73 wasn’t even a tenth clear of second-place gamer ELEGHOST555. Spaniard ELEGHOST555, who is a new name in the final stages, was second to choose his team for the Semi Final by virtue of his FP result and went for his favourite – the Movistar Yamaha MotoGP team and the Yamaha M1. Italian IOTIFOROSSI, meanwhile, was another tenth in arrears and took third, choosing to compete at Aprilia Racing Team Gresini.
Another Italian was fourth quickest as ANDREWZH ended Free Practice just 0.033 off P3. He chose the Repsol Honda Team’s Honda RC213V, leaving Dani Pedrosa fan AADRIAN_26, who completed the top five by another tiny margin, just missing out on the chance to race the machinery belonging to his favourite. He opted instead to race as part of Team Suzuki Ecstar on the Suzuki GSX-RR.
LUIGI48GP was the next quickest man on Thursday evening. He chose to race with the Red Bull Factory Racing team and ride the KTM RC16 into Semi-Final 1, just ahead of 2018 runner up CRISTIANMM17, who was seventh and went for the Angel Nieto Team. Then comes PAUL_IG, who was an unbelievable single thousandth behind CRISTIANMM17 and went for the Monster Yamaha Tech 3 team.
The tiny gaps remained throughout the field. IVAN_AVELLA was ninth quickest and chose to represent Alma Pramac Racing, just ahead of SUOMY, who completed the top ten and will also ride a Ducati in the Semi-Final; this one in Reale Avintia Racing colours. German player TIMOTHYMCGARDEN61 was P11 and went for LCR Honda, with JUAN_NH16 from Seville rounding out the timesheets and competing for EG 0,0 Marc VDS.
That’s Free Practice now over and the stage is set for Semi-Final 1. Qualifying will take place first, followed the main event: the first 10-lap race of the eSport season. Make sure to tune in later on Friday at 18:30 (GMT +2)!
