#VALENCIAGP: TOP6 IN WET CONDITIONS FOR TEAM GRESINI RIDERS
Heavy rain was the leading protagonist in the opening day of action for Team Del Conca Gresini in what is the grand finale of the 2018 Moto3 World Championship at Valencia. Despite the inclement weather, both Fabio Di Giannantonio (3rd) and Jorge Martin (6th) ended the day in the high part of the combined free-practice classification.
The Italian found a good feeling with his Honda quarter-litre machine in both session and logged a personal best lap-time of 1’51.967secs, which was less than a tenth slower of Lopez’s provisional pole position time. Martin, on the other hand, only needed one session – the afternoon one – to get up to speed and find a good rhythm around the Ricardo Tormo circuit.
Both riders already proved to be competitive in wet conditions and more than ready for the final race of the year. Before that, as usual, there will be one last qualifying session to take part in, which gets underway tomorrow at 12:35 local time (GMT +1).
3rdFABIO DI GIANNANTONIO #21
“We played a little bit of a waiting game this morning, but with rain expected on Sunday it was the case to take to the track. I must say the feeling with the bike was great, even though I chose not to take too many risks. In the afternoon, in even wetter conditions, the feeling improved even more so we are aiming at the best result, as usual.”
6th– JORGE MARTIN #88
“It was a positive day, even though we decided to take it easy this morning given the track conditions – as it made no sense to get on track. We had a clear idea of what settings to use on the wet this afternoon and the bike responded well. We did a small adjustment to the rear end in the afternoon which didn’t really convince me much, but we’ll give it another try tomorrow. The idea is to keep working on our race pace, but we’ll still try to claim the last pole of our Moto3 journey.”
