Bastianini Again On Front Row After Rain Hit Silverstone Qualifying. ‘Diggia’ Slowed By A Crash
Gresini Racing Team Moto3 racer Enea Bastianini clinched an important front row start after this afternoon’s British Grand Prix Qualifying at Silverstone in wet conditions. For the 18-year-old rider from Rimini, who set the second fastest time in 2’33”748, this is the sixth front row start of the season, the fifth consecutive. Tomorrow Bastianini will start next to poleman Francesco Bagnaia, who preceded him by only 0.1 seconds, in a race that still promises to be dry.
It was instead an unlucky Qualifying session for the other the Gresini Racing Team Moto3 rider, Fabio Di Giannantonio: the 17-year-old rookie from Rome, who had finished the first day of practice in third place, showing an excellent speed on dry, compromised his Qualifying with a crash in the early stages of the session. When he managed to get back on track only in the final minutes, ‘Diggia’ failed to improve and tomorrow he will be forced to start down in 25th place. Fabio remains still confident that he can make a good recovery.
ENEA BASTIANINI (2nd – 2’33”748)
“I’m very happy because last year on this track I was not so fast in wet conditions: this second position proves that I made some good steps forward. Obviously we still need to continue working for the race, because if it’s true that we were able to make a nice lap today, it also must be said that if it will rain tomorrow it will be important to be able to keep a good pace throughout the whole race, so it will be important to work on this front. As for the dry conditions, we are not very far from the fastest, but something is still missing: riders like Bagnaia and Navarro seem faster at the moment, so tomorrow if there will be the possibility of a dry Warm Up it will be important to continue working hard to improve further. I’m feeling good on the bike though, so I’m convinced that in dry conditions we can fight for the podium”.
FABIO DI GIANNANTONIO (25th – 2’36”842)
“Too bad for the crash! We have been fast both in the first free practice sessions yesterday than this morning and definitely in qualifying we would have been very competitive in the dry. However, it went like this: I made a stupid mistake, I should have been more clever in the early laps of the Qualifying. I took the inside line at Turn 15 to pass another rider, then I opened the throttle when I was still pretty leaned and I crashed. Once I managed to get back on the track unfortunately I had not much time to regain the right feeling to push, so I was not able to improve. Tomorrow most likely the race will be run in the dry, so I remain confident that we can do well. I will have to push hard to recover, but we can do it!”.
FAUSTO GRESINI
“Enea confirmed to have taken a really good step forward with regard to the wet conditions, being really fast here, on a difficult track on which last year he was struggling with rain. I’m sorry for the crash of Fabio, who tomorrow will be forced to start from behind on a track where, until the arrival of the rain, he had proven to be very competitive. Tomorrow anyway the weather forecasts indicate a dry race, so the situation should return normal: Enea will start from a very good position and he can undoubtedly fight for a good result, while Di Giannantonio will face a more uphill race. He will have to push hard to recover, but he has already proven to be able to do so”.
