FRONT ROW FOR GONZALEZ IN THE SOLIDARITY GP
Manuel Gonzalez has enjoyed a positive Saturday at Montmeló, which started with a fifth place in the combined times of the two Practice sessions of the weekend, and therefore translated into a direct seed to Q2. After seeing two quick laps cancelled due to yellow flag situations, he managed to set a personal best time of 1’42.149secs to secure second place in qualifying and a front-row start for the final race of the year – with the goal being the top three in the championship.
Albert Arenas had a more challenging day as he was forced to go through Q1 after a complicated Practice2 session. He did manage to make it into Q2 with the third quickest time in the first qualifying session, but then he crashed after pushing past the limit. He will start tomorrow’s race in 17th place courtesy of his only lap recorded (1’48.609secs). He will try to put together a comeback in front of his home crowd tomorrow, with great desire to wrap up the 2024 season on a high note.
2nd – MANUEL GONZALEZ #18 (1’42.149)
“Qualifying has been our weakest point throughout the championship, so to get a front row start gives us a great boost: it’s like we did half of the job, because even with a normal start you can find yourself in the first three-four positions and everything is easier: you don’t have to stress the tyres too much, you can tail the quickest riders and keep a strong pace already from the beginning. We can have a good race tomorrow: the goal is to win, but if we cannot do so, we’ll still battle for the podium: we’re in the fight for third in the championship, which is very important for me, so we’ll try to bag as many points as we can. We’re happy with the work done so far.”
17th – ALBERT ARENAS #75 (1’48.609)
“We were struggling this morning and I didn’t manage to get a direct seed to Q2, as we’re lacking a bit of traction. We tried to make an adjustment for Q1 but it didn’t work too well: I still gave my best and managed to make it into Q2, but I only had one set of tyres left and therefore only one chance to make a difference. I did all I could and then some, but unfortunately I crashed at turn 10 and subsequently didn’t manage to complete a competitive lap-time. We’ll try to go through the data again and make some changes ahead of tomorrow: we’ll do everything to have a good race.”
