FERRARI WILL LINE UP EIGHTH, FINELLO THIRTEENTH
It was a bittersweet day for Matteo Ferrari, who after topping the combined FP timesheets and making it through to Q2 as the favorite unfortunately made a mistake in qualifying and crashed out. The rider #11 will therefore start the two races from eighth place on the grid, ready for comeback: in race one, however, he will have to do a long-lap penalty as he crashed out under yellow flags.
Alessio Finello had a positive Friday after two free practice that saw him constantly improving, but unfortunately missed direct access to Q2 for less than a second. The Turin-born rider got a 13th place in qualifying, which bodes well for tomorrow, with the goal being the top ten in both encounters.
8th – MATTEO FERRARI #11 (2’11.333)
“It was a positive Friday: we worked well from FP1, where I was struggling in sectors 3 and 4, but we immediately understood what we had to work on and we improved already from FP2. I like the setup of the bike a lot; too bad for qualifying where I made a mistake: I got to turn 2 with the cold tyre in order to avoid others following me, but I ended up crashing. I will start eighth and have to do a long-lap penalty in race one. We’re ready for tomorrow: the races will likely be wet, so we’ll try to do our best also under different conditions.”
13th – ALESSIO FINELLO #72 (2’11.981)
“It was a good Friday and actually one of the best qualifying performances result-wise, but we started quite confident also from the first session. I didn’t know the track but I learned a lot from the mistake made in Sachsenring and during the summer break, and this helped me get here a lot calmer and focused to do well. We’re quick and competitive and tomorrow we’ll start in the middle of the pack. We can make another step forward tomorrow, we know we can be competitive even if the track will be wet!”
