ALL TIGHT TOGETHER, DIGGIA AND MARQUEZ A STEP AWAY FROM Q2
Eighteen riders within 0.541 seconds. This is the interesting statistic at the end of day one for the Thai GP, where Fabio Di Giannantonio and Alex Marquez were among the protagonists in both sessions. Something clearly was missing with regards to time-attack however as he Italian was 14th quickest and the Spaniard 18th, but the small gap from the top ten bodes well for tomorrow’s Q1.
Diggia finished the day with a personal best of 1’30.262, only 123 milliseconds away from Fernandez (the last to earn the direct seed to Q2) while Marquez, one tenth slower than his teammate, will be among the favourites to secure one of the two remaining slots in tomorrow’s Q1.
14th – FABIO DI GIANNANTONIO #49 (1’30.262)
“The general feeling in race configuration is excellent and we have a great pace with the hard tyre option ahead of Sunday. We had a few grip issues at the rear-end during the time-attack and it’s a shame we couldn’t get into Q2 already, but we’re all very close and every little step forward can translate into a big jump position-wise.”
18th – ALEX MARQUEZ #73 (1’30.367)
“I’m a little angry with myself because I made too many mistakes during the time attack. We could have comfortably been in Q2 already, but between my mistakes and the yellow flag on the last lap it just wasn’t possible. The feeling with the bike is good and we need to improve something especially on the single-lap performance, as race-pace wise we are already at a good level. It’ll be key, as usual, to make it into Q2.”
