SPIELBERG: TEAM GRESINI MOTOGP COMPLETES OPENING DAY WITH POSITIVE SIGNS
#AustrianGP. Enea Bastianini had a strong start to the thirteenth round of the MotoGP World Championship, as he finished eighth in the combined times of today’s two free practice sessions at the Red Bull Ring – and was only two tenths of a second shy of first place.
The talented Italian could have finished even higher, though, as race direction cancelled a lap-time that would have catapulted him into second place – and only few milliseconds away from Zarco’s provisional pole position. Due to exceeding track limits on the exit at turn eight, Bastianini is now in a little bit of a limbo in terms of direct seed to Q2, with tomorrow’s FP3 that will be crucial if he wants step into the second and final qualifying session from the main door.
Fabio Di Giannantonio was only 19th at the end of the day and will need to work hard in the next few hours while hoping for a sunny morning in Spielberg (which can never be given for granted) in order to enter Q2 on a track that so far has never suited his style.
ENEA BASTIANINI #23
“It’s been a positive day: we got up to speed from the get-go and showed a good pace. The feeling is good, and everything comes easy. I don’t think we will make big adjustments tomorrow – except from a few electronic tweaks to exploit the power of the bike. The new chicane is not too bad, but it’s quite a challenging spot also due to the different type of asphalt. Lap cancelled aside I’m not worried, as we can do well tomorrow.”
FABIO DI GIANNANTONIO #49
“It’s a shame that we were unable to make the most of the soft tyre today: there was a lot of traffic, and I made a few too many mistakes, plus the yellow flags also didn’t help so we must keep our fingers crossed for a dry FP3 session. Having said that we didn’t do too bad, and I think tomorrow we will have a clear picture of the direction to follow. We especially have to improve the corner entry as the bike still doesn’t fully feel the way I’d like.”
