CHALLENGING FRIDAY FOR FERRARI
A weekend started on the wrong foot for Matteo Ferrari: the expectations for the rider #11 ahead of this round were high, but the track conditions in the first session – combined with a technical problem in the second one – forced him to go through Q1, in which he set a 1’47.620s that resulted in a third place and the exclusion from Q2. He will start tomorrow’s races from 11th place on the grid, ready for two comeback efforts.
Alessio Finello managed to improve his performance as he bettered his FP2 lap-time by seven tenths of a second in qualifying, and with a time of 1’48.249 seconds he claimed the fourteenth place on the grid for tomorrow’s two opening encounters of the season – with the target being the top ten.
11th – MATTEO FERRARI #11 (1’47.620)
“A challenging Friday: we decided to not take any risk in FP1 as the track conditions were not ideal due to the weather. We were sure that we would have capitalized on the work done in testing during FP2 with a good result that could have paved the way for a direct seed to Q2, but a technical problem forced us to go through Q1, which didn’t go as hoped. Too bad for this fourth-row start that will surely impact on the first two races of the season, but we have to stay focused for tomorrow and try to bring home as many points as possible. The races are tomorrow, and anything can happen!”
14th – ALESSIO FINELLO #72 (1’48.249)
“We made a good step forward and I’m happy about it. We’re all very strong at this track given the off-season testing, so we are all very tight together. The gap with the riders ahead of us is not big and we can battle for a top-ten finish in both races. Now we’ll try to work with the team to make a further step forward to make our expectations a reality. Generally speaking, we improved in every session and that is proof that we’re working in the right direction.”
