CHALLENGING FRIDAY AT VALENCIA
Team QJMOTOR GRESINI RACING started on the wrong foot the final weekend of the season, with Filip Salač forced at the pit-garage after five laps due to a technical problem and Alcoba who had a crash in Practice 1. The Czech rider managed to bounce back in the afternoon and finished in 22nd place with a time of 1’34.870secs.
Jeremy Alcoba’s day turned out to be a very challenging one, as he was all the way down in 30th position at the end of the day. The rider #52 did not manage to get up to speed despite numerous set-up changes: further analyzing of the data will be needed in order to find the right direction ahead of P3: he will need to improve by slightly more than a second in order to battle for the direct seed to Q2.
It was a positive day for Matteo Ferrari, who made his Moto2 debut as a wildcard. The feeling by the Rimini-born rider is good, especially with used tyres. He will study the data in the afternoon in order to find the optimal feeling with the new tyre ahead of qualifying, and also how to get the bike stopped the perfect way in the first part of the braking process.
22nd – FILIP SALAČ #12 (1’34.870)
“It wasn’t exactly the day we wanted. At the start of Practice one we had a technical issue, and we were unlucky because we lost the whole session. Then in FP2 I was comfortable in the first run, we improved and we were quick. We may have chosen a wrong strategy in the second outing and that prevented me from improving some more. We will try again tomorrow, and we will do our best as usual.”
28th – MATTEO FERRARI #44 (1’35.184)
“It was a very positive day and we worked well, too bad that in the last run we didn’t manage to make the most of the new tyres, now we have to find out why. In the first run with used tyres, we did improve our time straight away, so I’m happy. Now we need to keep working in order to get the bike stopped better in the first part of the braking process, aside from that the feeling is good: let’s see how it goes tomorrow!”
30th – JEREMY ALCOBA #52 (1’35.455)
“It was a challenging day, maybe the most challenging Friday of the season. We tried many things in order to find the right feeling but we didn’t manage to do so. We’ll study the data now, as tomorrow we need a significant step forward ahead of P3 and especially in qualifying.”
