Red Bull packed up early Friday from Jerez due to various teething problems. Fellow Renault power unit squad Caterham also ended a bit early, as well.
The Leafield squad completed 76 laps this week, 54 of which came today with new recruit Kamui Kobayashi and at an unrepresentative best lap of 1:43.193. The team still said it had a “more productive Friday.”
The productivity ended, however, with a Power Unit component issue ending the day a little ahead of schedule.
On the bright side for Caterham, it got in 50-plus more laps than Red Bull this week, and 76 more than Lotus, which opted not to attend the Jerez test.
On the not-so-bright side, despite all the laps, that best time today was nearly 20 seconds off the leading times ran on Thursday, when the Mercedes-powered McLaren of Kevin Magnussen ended on top at a 1:23.276.
We’ll see the next steps of Caterham’s development process from here.
Coming off his best Supercross season to date, Enzo Lopes has re-signed with Muc-Off / ClubMX Yamaha and will race for the team in 2024. The deal is for Supercross only.Enzo Lopes won his heat race in Denver and finished fourth in the Main. – Feld Motor Sports
Lopes debuted in the Supercross series in 2019 on a Suzuki and scored his first top-10 finishes in his last two starts of that season. Showing consistent improvement, he earned six top-10s in eight Main events the following year and finished fifth in the 250 East standings. In 2022, he scored his first top-five at Daytona and finished in the top five in points again.
“I am happy to be returning to ClubMX for another season,” Lopes said in a press release. “It is like family to me there and that is very important. Although I had many options, staying where I am makes the most sense for many reasons. The bikes are great, the people are great, the tracks are amazing, and I am surrounded by people that care about me. We all want to win and together we will get there.”
While he improved his season-best performance by only one position this year, it was nevertheless a breakout season. Lopes barely missed the podium three times in 2023 with fourth-place finishes at San Diego, Seattle, and Denver.
His strong performance him rumored to be speaking with factory teams.
“We could see the growth from Enzo every time he gets on the bike,” said team owner Brandon Haas. “We all knew it was just a matter of time before he would be noticed by everyone, and we are proud of him on many levels. He had some heat race wins and qualified fastest at three events this season. It would be hard not to be noticed going that fast. He had a big decision to make and we are glad he chose to stay with us at ClubMX.”
Lopes had three podium finishes in heat races this year, including a win preceding his fourth-place finish in Denver.
