TEAM KÖMMERLING GRESINI MOTO3 BEGINS SEPANG CHALLENGE
The last extra-European challenge of the 2019 Moto3 World Championship got underway at Sepang, With Riccardo Rossi and Gabri Rodrigo fully focused on doing a good job on a track that is “new” to both. If for the Italian this is an absolute debut in Malaysia, Rodrigo clearly suffered – result-wise this Friday – due to last year’s absence at this round.
Rossi (15th) and Rodrigo (18th) are currently out of the list of riders who will seeded directly to Q2 and therefore will have to hope for favourable weather in tomorrow morning’s #MalaysianGP FP3. In any case, there is hope because today the Italian rider (who completed 26 laps) was only a few thousandths of a second away from 14thplace and seem to having fun on the long straighs of the track, while for Rodrigo it is only about time to find the right lines again, especially in the central – and more technical – sectors of the track.
Moto3 proceedings will resume tomorrow at 9:00 local time (GMT+8) with FP3, while qualifying (Q1) will begin at 12:35.
15th– RICCARDO ROSSI #54
“Being my first time here and finishing 8 tenths away from the top – and very close to Q2 – wasn’t too bad at all. We know that it will be difficult tomorrow due to the lower temperatures, but we’re still focus on improving our knowledge of the track and on the tyre choice for the race. I’m happy with how today went.”
18th– GABRI RODRIGO #19
“It was a quite complicated opening day. We basically didn’t use the first session as the track conditions were mixed, while in the afternoon I lapped on my own and struggled a bit. The fact that I didn’t race here last year means that I still don’t have the perfect lines around this track, but we can be competitive and that shows from the fact that I have been the quickest in the first split, for example. We still need something in sectors two and three, so we will analyse the telemetry today in order to do well tomorrow, while hoping for a dry FP3 session.”
