Donington Park, Qualifying: Maria Herrera outstanding – Neila in 2nd place

In the only free practice session of the WorldWCR at Donington Park on Friday morning, Spain’s Beatriz Neila set the fastest time of 1:40.251 minutes. Behind her, Australia’s Tayla Relph and championship leader Maria Herrera finished in second and third place respectively. Germany’s Lucy Michel finished the free practice session in 17th place, more than three seconds off the pace.

In the 25-minute qualifying session on Friday afternoon, Tayla Relph set the first notable fastest time of 1:41.659. By way of comparison, Neila had set the lap record at Donington in 2025 with a time of 1:38.964.

After seven minutes, Maria Herrera took the lead with a time of 1:40.203. Relph improved her time to 1:40.556.

Shortly afterwards, Herrera clocked 1:39.388 minutes – by far the fastest lap of the day and the first time under 1:40 minutes. One lap later, the Spaniard lowered her best time to 1:39.091 minutes. Paolo Ramos set the second-fastest time so far with 1:39.991 min.

The top five with ten minutes to go: Herrera, Ramos, Ruiz, Relph and Neila. After that, everyone set off on a final push for the fastest times. Four minutes before the end, Justine Pedemonte crashed in Turn 7 – she was uninjured. Shortly afterwards, the British rider Cloe Jones crashed between Turns 1 and 2. At that point, she was in seventh place.

Meanwhile, Neila set the second-fastest time. However, she was over half a second slower than Herrera.