GOOD SPEED FOR GONZALEZ ON FRIDAY AT JEREZ
Manuel Gonzalez has started the Spanish Grand Prix on the right food by being among the protagonists on the opening day of action at Jerez. The rider #18 was third quickest in the morning’s free practice and then sixth in the afternoon practice session, only three tenths shy of the leader. Gonzalez had a good feeling with both soft and hard rear tyre option, meaning he was fast both on the single-lap attempt and on the longer distance, a positive indicator ahead of tomorrow’s qualifying.
Albert Arenas had more of a difficult day as he struggled to find the pace in the FP session. He did well in Practice1, where he logged a 1’41.265secs lap-time for ninth place, which provisionally gives him access to Q2.
On the other side of the garage there is the wild card Matteo Ferrari, who made the most of this first session aboard a 2024 Moto2 machine while trying to find the optimal feeling and concentrating on his race pace in Practice1. He will turn his attention on the time attack tomorrow morning with the number #23 on his bike to honour Fausto Gresini in this adventure.
6th – MANUEL GONZALEZ #18 (1’40.999)
“It was an excellent Friday as I felt good with the bike straight away from the first morning lap. We’re really quick, both on the single lap and on the longer run, and I really feel good with both the hard and the soft options at the rear. I couldn’t complete the perfect lap as I had to slow down at the last turn on the time attack, but our potential for the weekend is really high.”
9th – ALBERT ARENAS #75 (1’41.265)
“It was an intense day as we struggled to find the perfect feeling. We mainly worked on the race distance, with a special focus on tyres. We’ll keep working on it also tomorrow with the goal to have a good qualifying and then concentrate on the race.”
29th – MATTEO FERRARI #23 (1’42.532)
“A quite positive day and there’s obviously a lot to do. It’s our first time racing with a 2024 engine so we had to work a lot on both engine brake and acceleration. We improved our lap-time in the second session without using a new tyre, as we focused on our pace. We hope that tomorrow the conditions will allow us to do the time attack and get as close as we can to Q2.”
