Bastianini Confident After Day One At Barcelona. Positive Start For Di Giannantonio
The Catalan Grand Prix, seventh round of the 2016 Moto3 World Championship, kicked off today at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya with the Gresini Racing Team Moto3 riders, Enea Bastianini and Fabio Di Giannantonio, who closed the combined classification of the first two Free Practice session in 11th and in 19th position, respectively.
Bastianini, who set the time of 1’52”179, said he was satisfied with the improvements of his bike under braking and with the pace shown with the hard tyres, but tomorrow he will continue to work together with the team to improve the behaviour of his bike in order to be strong also with the soft tyres ahead of Qualifying.
His team mate Fabio Di Giannantonio, at his first visit on the demanding Catalan track, in the afternoon improved significantly his performance compared to the morning session, ending the day with a time of 1’52”778. The 17-year-old rookie from Rome, who has already found a good feeling with his Honda NSF250RW machine, starting from a base set-up similar to that used at Mugello, tomorrow will continue to deepen the knowledge of the track ahead of the Qualifying session.
ENEA BASTIANINI (11th – 1’52”179)
“The track has changed a lot compared to last year: it’s more bumpy, therefore at the moment it’s more difficult to ride here. However, compared to Mugello we have improved the bike under braking and now I can brake stronger; anyway, I still can’t enter the corners in the best way, struggling to hold the line. Tomorrow we need to work on that and also it will be important to work to be fast with the soft tyre, because we have seen that if you start from the third row or behind then is difficult to recover during the race. So tomorrow we will try to do a good job ahead of Qualifying, trying to be fast with the soft tyre, because with the harder compound we are not far from the other riders”.
FABIO DI GIANNANTONIO (19th – 1’52”778)
“This morning I could not have a good feeling with the bike, but in the afternoon the situation improved and, with a similar set-up to that used at Mugello, I regained a good feeling. In the final stages we also fitted the soft tyres to try to make a good lap time, even if I found a bit of traffic and we have not improved our performance a lot. Overall I’m still quite happy with this first day, considering that this is the first time I see this track, which is difficult, more than I expected. The bike is working good, but I still need to improve my riding: I don’t know yet all the secrets of this circuit and lap by lap I’m doing better lines, so tomorrow I will definitely push harder”.
