Sonya Lloyd heads into the summer break after the opening four rounds of the 2025 FIM Women’s Circuit Racing Championship buoyed after her best qualifying performance and a return to the top twenty at the all-new Balaton Park in Hungary.
Arriving at the recently constructed 4.1km circuit which is located to the Hungarian capital – Budapest, the #32 Trasimeno Yamaha rider was confident of closing the gap to the leading riders in the series, something she achieved as the championship entered its second half.
Maximising laps at a new venue for the American by being first on track in both Free Practice and Superpole on Friday worked, with Sonya achieving her best grid position of nineteenth.
Race one was held in hot and humid conditions. Sonya held her own in the opening eleven lap encounter on Saturday. After being shuffled back off the start she eventually found herself inside the top twenty, lapping faster than the riders ahead. She crossed the line to secure her first top twenty finish since Cremona, in May.
Race two was also held in dry conditions after Sonya shone in the wet morning warm up session. Once again battling throughout, she crossed the line after a hard fought eleven laps in twenty-second position.
With four top twenty finishes in the eight races completed so far this season, Sonya is looking to further improve when the series returns at the Circuit de Nevers Magny-Cours in early September.
She is also working behind the scenes on a new interactive website which she will launch before the penultimate round of the series.
Sonya Lloyd:
“Balaton Park was a new circuit for me. Practice went well. I made sure I was the first one out on track so that those who had tested at the track before would come by me and I could then chase them as much as possible. I was taking about a second a lap off my times in practice so this strategy in terms of getting up to speed faster worked. I felt good and knew what changes to make for Superpole. I had a bit of a lonely qualifying. I kept trying to find the pack but sometimes it just doesn’t work out. I wanted more but I qualified nineteenth which is my best grid position of the year so far which shows we are going in the right direction. It was nice in race one to be starting a bit further up the grid and it definitely gave me a jump into turn one. I got a bit squeezed through the opening couple of corners and lost a couple positions. It was hard to pass and the group I was with had completely different riding styles. I eventually made my way forward but by the time I had cleared the slower riders I had too much of a gap to close in the laps left. My lap times were as fast as the group fighting for seventeenth, which is encouraging, and I was gaining on them, I just ran out of laps. We had a wet warm up on Sunday and I was in the top three when I made a stop to check where I was. I felt good and decided to not risk anything before the race so never went back out. By the time race two began the rain had stopped. I got a better launch and was much more aggressive in the first couple of corners but then I got shuffled back a bit. It’s not the race I wanted, and I need to reset during the summer break and come back stronger. I know the results will come and my lap times are much closer to the points zone which is a positive as I head back to the USA. I am looking forward to Magny-Cours, a circuit which nobody has raced at, so see you all there.”
