Adrián Cruces and Joel Esteban won the races in the last round of the FIM JuniorGP World Championship, which concluded its season in Valencia on Sunday.
Xabier Zurutuza (MTA Junior Team/KTM) started from pole position, but in the first race, after one lap, it was Cruces (Finetwork Mir Racing Team/KTM) who was in the lead. The front group remained close throughout the race, and although #11 consistently led, he temporarily lost the position to the already crowned champion
Ángel Piqueras (Team Estrella Galicia 0,0/Honda). Cruces quickly regained the first place and crossed the finish line with a tiny 0.052s gap over Alvaro Carpe (SVT Laglisse Racing/Husqvarna). Piqueras completed the podium in front of Zurutuza, with Nico Carraro (Aspar Junior Team/GasGas) in fifth. The top seven were separated by less than a second.
The second race was somewhat similar to the first. Zurutuza held the pole position, but Cruces moved to the front in the first lap and kept his position for most of the laps, despite the close competition among the riders in the leading group. The Spanish rider crossed the finish line first, but a track limit infraction on the last lap resulted in a one-place penalty. Esteban, who finished second, was declared the winner. Luca Lunetta (AC Racing Team/KTM) took third place in front of Piqueras, who briefly led the race. Carpe rounded out the top five. In this race, the first nine riders were separated by less than one second in the end.