Di Giannantonio and Sasaki take seventh row in rain affected Sepang Qualifying
Exactly as happened yesterday in the first day of Free Practice of the Malaysian Grand Prix, the weather played again a key role during this afternoon’s qualifying session at the Sepang International Circuit: the 40-minute session to decide the starting grid in fact started with the asphalt still wet, then it has also been red flagged for the arrival of a heavy downpour.
In such difficult conditions, the two Gresini Racing Team Moto3 riders, Fabio Di Giannantonio and Ayumu Sasaki, set respectively the 19th and the 21st fastest time: the 18-year-old Italian and the 16-year-old Japanese, who is replacing injured Enea Bastianini, will therefore start tomorrow from the seventh row of the grid.
Di Giannantonio set his best time, 2’28”982 in the first half of Qualifying, before the interruption: later the rookie from Rome was not able to improve his performance, due to the lack of feeling with his Honda in the wet. Fabio will therefore continue to work on the bike set-up with the team to try to gain more confidence ahead of tomorrow’s race.
Ayumu Sasaki’s Qualifying may instead be considered positive: despite difficult conditions and at his first experience in the World Championship, the Japanese youngster did not make any mistake and he was also able to improve his performance by 0.4 seconds in the final stages of the session, after the interruption, setting 2’29”267.
FABIO DI GIANNANTONIO (19th – 2’28”982)
“Today, unfortunately, I couldn’t reach a good feeling with the bike. Right from the start of the Qualifying the track conditions were complicated, then the downpour caused the interruption of the session. Finally, when we came back on track with the wet I was not able to improve myself. I tried to push, but the feeling was not good; especially the rear tyre was sliding a lot and I didn’t want to risk a crash. Too bad, once again we will start the race from the back. Tomorrow it will be difficult regardless of the conditions, but I would prefer to race in the dry, although in practice there has not been the opportunity to make a lot of laps with a completely dry track”.
AYUMU SASAKI (21st – 2’29”267)
“It was a good Qualifying! I’m happy especially because after the red flag, with a wet track, I was able to improve the time obtained in the first part of the session. In the rain my feeling is good, so I’m satisfied. I would have liked to stay in the top 15, but it was not possible: anyway the race is tomorrow, and we will try our best!”.
FAUSTO GRESINI
“It was a difficult qualifying for Di Giannantonio: he didn’t find the right feeling with the bike and therefore he was not able to set good lap times. The team will work to try to help him to gain more feeling, which is basically what is lacking at the moment, then we will see tomorrow what the weather brings for the race. Sasaki did a very good job with no mistakes and I’m happy for that: in these conditions it was not easy at all, so well done to him!”.
