A BITTERSWEET SATURDAY FOR TEAM QJMOTOR GRESINI MOTO2 AT SEPANG
The second day of action at Sepang started off on the right foot for Filip Salač who was able to record a streak of competitive lap-times in Free Practice 3 and, with a time of 2’06.072, found himself directly seeded to Q2 and full of expectations. Unfortunately, a crash at turn seven in the very early stages of the final qualifying session took away any chance for a spot in the first rows of the grid. The Czech rider will therefore line up tomorrow in 18th place for the third-last race of the season, ready to bounce back.
After a positive Friday, Jeremy Alcoba’s Saturday also turned out to be a challenging one. The Spanish rider ended up sixteenth in the combined FP times and therefore forced to tackle Q1; he then crashed at turn five, an incident that cost him the chance to making it through Q2. He will start tomorrow’s Malaysian GP race from 21st place on the grid, knowing that the good feeling aboard his Kalex may enable him to put together a good comeback.
18th – FILIP SALAČ #12 (2’17.196)
“It was a positive morning: we managed to be quick, and the feeling was good. Then in qualifying the temperatures rose and already while exiting the pits I realized that the grip had decreased, so much that I nearly crashed at turn four already on the first lap – but I was able to save it. Then I ended up crashing on the following lap at turn seven. We will try our best tomorrow in the race…”
21st – JEREMY ALCOBA #52 (2’06.430)
“I’m very sorry with how this day has gone: we had a good pace and managed to set some competitive lap-times. We did a good job throughout the weekend, but I wasn’t able to capitalise during qualifying, made a mistake and crashed. The bike is performing well, however, I have a good feeling and I feel tomorrow we’ll be able to do a good comeback, even though it won’t be easy.”
