#CATALANGP QUALIFYING: MARTIN MISSES OUT ON POLE AS DIGGIA PREPARES COMEBACK
With four crashes – two per rider – between this morning’s practice and qualifying, it could have been a nightmare Saturday for Team Del Conca Gresini Moto3, who were instead quick and well-prepared in bouncing back from setbacks; as the second day of action at Montmeló draws to a close, Jorge Martin is on pole with team mate Fabio Di Giannantonio 13th despite the close-to-none track-time available in the afternoon.
Jorge Martin was the unfortunate one in the morning after highsiding at turn two; despite missing the second half of FP3, he was on top of the timesheets anyway. It was a hard landing for the Spanish rider, who fought through the pain to claim a second place on the grid that feels more like a pole position.
Fabio Di Giannantonio was possibly even less lucky than his team mate, as a tumble in the early stages of qualifying made him miss basically the 90% what is without a doubt the most important session of Saturday. With only three quick-lap attempts, his 13th quickest time – only 0.6secs shy of pole position – is nothing short of amazing.
Both Team Del Conca Gresini Moto3 riders will try and play their cards right tomorrow morning from 11:00, with the tyre choice being more important than ever given the boiling hot temperatures of the #CatalanGP.
2nd – JORGE MARTIN #88
“It’s been a complicated day. THis morning I tried to settle into a nice rhythm with used tyres to continue on the work done yesterday, but I pushed too much and ended up crashing. The hit was quite hard and so the pain, so I would have signed for a front-row qualifying result. We should be OK for tomorrow: Enea [Bastianini] is always very competitive at this track so we’ll need to try and stay with him in order to make some selection, too. Crashes aside, we did a good job, so we only have to make our tyre choice now.”
13th – FABIO DI GIANNANTONIO #21
“It was quite an unusual day: this morning we got on track with used tyres and we had a good pace. We managed to make some good improvements with fresh rubber, even though I ended up crashing at the end of the session whilst trying to overtake a backmarker. This afternoon I was really charged up and with the tyre probably not in the right temperature still, I think I might have exaggerated a bit and crashed again. Too bad, because I only had three laps available throughout qualifying… although 13th is not too bad, if we look at last year’s performance here. Let’s get ready for the comeback!”
