The 16-year-old rider from Singleton, NSW, failed to score points in the opening round, finishing 19th and 17th from 24 riders in the two-race event. Despite recording the second-highest top speed during qualifying, van Eerde put his KTM RC250R 15th on the grid and couldn’t improve his position over race distance.

The opening race victory went to Turkish rider Can Öncü, ahead of Spain’s Carlos Tatay and Öncü’s twin brother Deniz. The second race was won by Tatay ahead of Can Öncü  with third place going to Czech rider Filip Salač.

Round two of the seven-round series gets underway in Mugello on 2 June.