BARCELLONA: FOURTH PLACE FOR GONZALEZ ON OPENING DAY OF ACTION
After topping the timesheets in the morning’s free practice with a 1’42.860secs lap-time, Manuel Gonzalez had more of a challenging time in the afternoon with the changing of track conditions and hotter temperatures. He still managed to clock in 1’43.076secs and provisionally placing himself fourth in the lot of riders to go through to Q2 directly.
Albert Arenas struggled today in getting up to speed in free practice. He did improve in the afternoon’s session as he climbed back to eleventh place as he joins his teammate in the group of riders provisionally eligible to a Q2 direct seed.
4th – MANUEL GONZALEZ #18 (1’43.076s)
“Today was a positive day, although not as good ad I’d have liked. This morning I felt good in every aspect as I was quick from the first lap and with great feeling. In the afternoon, on the other hand, the track conditions were completely different, it was hotter, and the bike also behaved very differently. I didn’t feel good with used tyres. We tried a different set-up but that didn’t work either. At the end of the session, I was able to set a good lap-time with fresh tyres, but I want more. We need to work ahead of tomorrow.”
11th – ALBERT ARENAS #75 (1’43.477s)
“It was a bit of a difficult opening day: we did our best in order to turn things around in the afternoon but we still need some work to do, especially with regards to traction. The feeling is not the best, but we’ll analyse the data this afternoon in order to find the right direction that can allow us to have a good qualifying session tomorrow. Still I’m happy, as we managed to finish the program for the day and do a race-distance simulation, which gave us some crucial information.”
