DIFFICULT QUALIFYING ON PORTIMAO ROLLERCOASTER
Qualifying – #PortugueseGP The second day of action in Portugal kicked off again under extreme conditions, which forced race direction to deploy the red flag during FP3. As the final free practice session resumed, both standard bearers of team Gresini Racing Moto2 were able to improve although not enough to get seeded to Q2 directly, with Zaccone missing the direft admission for only 41 thousandths of a second due to a small mistake in the last lap, while Salač was 0.175s away.
Challenging conditions carried on into Q1 with some damp patches on an otherwise dry track, which made the circuit very tricky.
Filip Salač was unfortunately left out of Q2 despite setting an identical time to fourth-placed rider. Due to front-end issues the rider #12 was unable to give his best and will start tomorrow’s race from 19th place on the grid.
It was a challenging qualifying session also for Alessandro Zaccone, who after three wet sessions he struggled to find a good feeling on the dry. Data analysis will allow the #61 to work on his dry set-up ahead of the race, expected to take place in the dry.
19th – FILIP SALAČ #12 (1’46.086)
“A difficult day: torrential rain this morning in FP3, where I was able to find a food feeling. We then encountered some wet patches in Q1, so totally different conditions which caused me to experience a front-end issue that prevented me from pushing at my very hardest. We were able to set an identical time to fourth place (the last slot available for Q2 admission) but it wasn’t enough. We were unlucky, but let’s see what tomorrow’s race brings!”
28th – ALESSANDRO ZACCONE #61 (1’47.762)
“Qualifying was a disaster: the very little dry track-time did not allow me to secure the type of result I wanted. Probably I made a mistake in choosing the softer tyre because it was moving a lot at the front. We will now analyse the data and get back to work, especially as tomorrow’s race will likely be in dry conditions.”
