THE GOOD AND THE BAD IN AUSTRIA: ALCOBA ON FRONT ROW, RODRIGO FROM PIT-LANE
The #AustrianGP had all the ingredients, from drama to joy, for Team Indonesian Racing Gresini Moto3, who on one hand places Jeremy Alcoba on the front row of today’s qualifying at Red Bull Ring, while on the other sees Gabriel Rodrigo going from eighth place on the grid all the way to a pit-lane start due to a penalty inflicted by race direction.
The Argentine rider had an extremely challenging day: during FP3 he collided with Yamanaka while entering turn three; both riders fell from their respective bikes, but the Japanese rider had the worse outcome as he suffered a humerus fracture. In Q2, despite already knowing about his penalty, Rodrigo had a coming together with Suzuki while attempting an overtaking manoeuvre – which led to an early end to his Saturday performance.
His only hope for tomorrow’s race (scheduled at 11:00 local time) will be represented by rainy conditions. It was a whole different story for Alcoba, who is hoping to well perform around the not-too-favourable corners of the Austrian venue.
3rd – JEREMY ALCOBA #52 (1’36.060)
“I’m really happy, especially because this is our worst track; despite that, we were able to be quick, at least on the single lap. Looks like we always manage to be competitive, but it’s time to do the same on Sunday. This stop&go circuit kind of gives us some limitations: maybe we need something more in terms of acceleration, but we’ll try to battle at the front tomorrow.”
8th – GABRIEL RODRIGO #2 (1’36.224 – he will start from pit-lane)
“First of all I would like to apologies to Yamanaka and Suzuki. Obviously neither of the happenings was intentional and I hope they will have a speedy recovery. From my point of view they were both just collisions, but the fact that Yamanaka got injured contributed to a penalty that I think it is a bit too big. Starting from pit-lane at this track is like not racing at all, so we have to hope it rains.”
