After the qualifying session, 14-year-old Joe Roberts was sitting in 17th place. But the young American was able to put together an impressive string of laps to cut through the pack to take his first win of his career.
Roberts won a two part Red Bull Rookies Cup race today at BRNO. The race started in dry conditions, but a heavy rain brought out the red flag. When the Rookies restarted, the race was shortened to a five lap sprint.
"I was enjoying the track but qualifying didn't go that well and I was only 17th on the grid," Roberts said. "The first race, I don't even want to think about it, I got passed and couldn't get into a rhythm, I was last. That put me at the back of the grid for the restart.
"I wasn't happy that it rained but then on the sighting lap I realised that there was quite a lot of grip. I just had to go for it, I didn't want to be last any more."
Arthur Sissis claimed the second place spot, finishing behind Roberts by just .03 seconds. But Sissis was happy to take second. The young Australian moved to the top of the leaderboard with his podium at BRNO ahead of Lorenzo Baldassarri, who finished 6th today.
"I couldn't believe the way that Joe went, he was so fast," Sissis said. "I didn't think that I could go with him but I tried. I managed just to catch him at the last corner but then went wide, good on him, it was a great ride."
There are only two more races in the Red Bull Rookies Cup. The penultimate race will happen tomorrow at BRNO. You can watch at www.redbull.tv.
Red Bull Rookies Cup - BRNO Race Results
- Joe Roberts (USA) 12 minutes 41.800 seconds
- Arthur Sissis (AUS) +0.030
- Tomas Vavrous (CZE) +1.508
- Stefano Valtulini (ITA) +1.560
- Xavier Pinsach (ESP) +3.292
- Lorenzo Baldassarri (ITA) +4.662
- Hafiq Azmi (MAS) +7.265
- Javier Orellana (GBR) +9.453
- Philipp Oettl (GER) +13.197
- Kevin Argino (ITA) +13.327
