MARTIN CLAIMS 13TH POLE TO EQUAL RINS MOTO3 RECORD
The Saturday of #ItalianGP gives Team Del Conca Gresini a first, important record: with the thirteenth Moto3 pole of his career – all scored under Gresini Racing’s colours), Jorge Martin rewrites history of the quarter-litre class by equalling Alex Rins as the rider with the highest number of pole positions ever.
It was not an easy session, however, although the Spanish rider was able to move on top of the timesheets already at halfway point, and he was the only one able to improve his time in the final stages – even for a few thousandths of a second. It will now be important for Martin to get back into the point-scoring zone – and possibly even win – after two DNFs he was surely not to blame for, but still had a big impact on his championship situation and his focus.
On the other side of Gresini’s Moto3 garage, Fabio Di Giannantonio finished qualifying in sixth place – meaning he will surely be in the position to battle at the sharp end of the field. The young Italian managed to solve the issues with the front-end of his Honda machine and managed to find some interesting times as well as an encouraging pace.
The sixth race of the 2018 Moto3 World Championship will get underway from 11:00 local time (GMT +2).
1st – JORGE MARTIN #88
“We rode exclusively on our own with the goal to prepare the race to perfection. I was not surprised with the pole position, but it wasn’t an easy one: I did a great lap without slipstreams… too bad because I think the lap record was within reach. We will try to push in the race and make some selection, in order to be 4 maximum 5 to battle for the win – especially as last year I was on pole and ended up outside the top-10. The goal is obviously to win.”
6th – FABIO DI GIANNANTONIO #21
“I’m really happy: we improved a lot compared to yesterday even though we still have some room for improvement – and I think we will get that extra in tomorrow’s warm up. We set great times both this morning and in the afternoon, better than I ever did before, and I’m sure I have a great pace for the race. It’s true we still lack some consistency, and we are trying hard, but we are surely ready for tomorrow.”
