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YAKHNICH MOTORSPORT TEAM
The Women European and Italian Championship
Stage I
Vallelunga, April 4-5 2009
Last weekend Nadia Yakhnich and Nataliya Lyubimova took part in the first competition of The European Championship and The Italian Women Championship 2009.
In the first free training races both sportswomen started very well, having consolidated their time 1:55.1 (Lyubimova) and 2:00 (Yakhnich).
In the first qualification session Lyubimova couldn’t repeat her best time, recorded on Friday, and got the 10th start position with 1:57.8 while Nadezda Yakhnich took the 13th place, having repeated her best time 2:00.
Taking into consideration high level of the participants, the qualification time of the Russian pilots must be found successful.
Nadia Yakhnich was especially happy to take a good and not the last position in the qualification, taking into consideration that she had returned to competitions after an injury got in Brno last year (October). This injury prevented her from having good practice at the end of 2008 and the beginning of 2009.
It should be explained how difficult and competitive The Italian Championship was. Alessia Polita who had got the pole position in the Women Championship with her time 1:43.3 recorded the same result in the race Superstock 600: the pole position against men…
One hour later, after the victorious race she repeated the result having won another race where another very strong sportswoman Paola Kazzola took part (She took the 3d place).
At the same time the two Russian pilots were admitted to Superstock 600 with their qualification time got in the Women Championship!
Nataliya started very well and from the 10th position she found herself in the middle of the racing group right after the fastest pilots…
Nadia Yakhnich didn’t do as well as Nataliya at the start but by the end of the first lap she was ready to attack the 13th position of Marolo and finally managed to overtake the rival in the second lap recording her best time 1:58.9!
In the middle of the race Lyubimova overtook Gola (Kawasaki) and got the ninth position. In that very phase of the race she recorded her best time 1:54.6, that was her fastest lap. But two laps before the finish Natalya couldn’t resist attacks of more experienced Gola and Rampola, so she finished eleventh.
Nadezda Yakhnich had less of the struggle. Unfortunately she is not perfectly fit after her October accident. So, in the middle of the race her first time 1:58 – 1:59 which would have let her finish 13th fell to 2:00-2:01 in the last five laps and she lost her position fighting with Marolo and Teran.
In any case both Russian girls surprised all the participants with their good qualification result. The majority of them remember that only one year ago they were out of race in Mizano (first competition) but now they are able to compete with the last and the middle part of the racing group in one of the toughest championships of the world…