CHALLENGING FRIDAY PRACTICE FOR QJMOTOR GRESINI DUO
The fully renovated Lusail International Circuit paddock, combined with the nowadays traditional but still suggestive, floodlit track, have welcomed Team QJMOTOR GRESINI RACING, with unfortunately both standard bearers outside the top 14 and therefore currently not qualified directly to Q2 as day one draws to a close.
After a challenging opening session due to poor grip around the track, Filip Salač managed to improve in the following one, albeit not enough, as some lack of feeling with gear shifting prevented him from pushing to the limit. He finished the day in 16th place. The Czech rider is only one tenth away from the top 14 and despite all, his feeling aboard the Kalex machine #12 is good: he will have another chance for a direct seed to Q2 tomorrow.
Jeremy Alcoba struggled to put all the pieces of the puzzle together and was only 22nd at the end of today’s two practice sessions. The different conditions encountered in the second session – with clean track and better grip, which added to the extra variable of racing under floodlights at nighttime – have made life difficult for the Spanish rider, who will need to work with the team ahead of tomorrow’s qualifying.
16th – FILIP SALAČ #12 (1’59.595)
“It was a difficult day: this morning, the grip level was very low and that made our life quite hard. It did improve during FP2 and we chose to go for the time attack in order to seal a spot in Q2, but I struggled to find the right confidence with the gearshift, and therefore I couldn’t push at the very limit. This cost us the provisional seed to Q2 but the bike set-up is good, I’m happy and I know we can do better tomorrow!”
22nd – JEREMY ALCOBA #52 (1’59.991)
“The track was very dirty this morning and it was hard to find the right feeling. The conditions changed dramatically for FP2, also due to the floodlights. We still need to do a lot of work to understand where I can push harder and be quicker for tomorrow.”
