Monday, 23 March: It may be a little too early to be predicting title outcomes, but could 2015 be Nacho Armillas’ year?

The 21-year-old Spaniard sits on top of the points table with defending Champion Jeremy Poret after sharing a win and a second apiece in Doha, but he struck the psychological blow winning the Qatar GP title, and it seems that the self-belief that was missing is now there and that he now believes he can beat the best. “Qatar was a big win for me. It made me realise that I can take on these guys and win,” said Armillas. “In race 1 in Qatar I became tired and Jeremy got past me but I was only about 1.5 seconds behind him at the end.  This changed my mind set for race 2. I thought to myself I can win it, just be more focussed on the next turn keep pushing and not worry or think about the fact that Jeremy is a World Champion and Kevin [Reiterer] won the finals in America and both are really fast. And straight away I was out front again, this time I told myself keep going, push and it worked.”

Armillas has a solid record on the UIM-ABP tour over the last four years finishing in the top six overall each time, his best was second in 2012 the year he last beat Poret, taking his first GP title in Liuzhou in China.

From 28 heat starts he has finished on the top step of the podium four times, notching up four 4 second and four third place finishes and is aiming to go out and try to repeat the form he produced in Qatar in round 2 in Castro in Italy at the end of May. “We have worked very hard on the bike, it really is better than last year. We have a great set-up and that showed at the starts in Qatar and the hull is also different so all round we have improved. So let’s see what happens in Castro”