GONZALEZ FOURTH IN MANDALIKA QUALIFYING
Manuel Gonzalez has enjoyed a positive Saturday as he missed out on pole position for only 194 thousandths of a second. Already from the morning, he had showed his speed by securing the the direct seed to Q2. In qualifying, he was en route to pole position with plenty of ‘red helmets’, eventually setting a 1’33.628secs lap-time worthy of a fourth place, with his pace that bodes well for tomorrow’s race.
Albert Arenas had a more of a difficult day: after being forced to go through Q1, he set the quickest lap of the session in 1’33.881 and made it through. He managed to repeat the performance, but he was only 14th at the chequered flag: all competitors are really close, as the Spanish was only four tenths shy of pole position.
4th – MANUEL GONZALEZ #18 (1’33.628)
“It was a very positive Saturday for us, we improved the feeling compared to yesterday: we improved a lot in the areas of the track where I wasn’t fully comfortably, and in those I felt strong I managed to push even harder. Qualifying went well: we went for a strategy that would allow us to do plenty of laps with the tyre, and our pace was really quick. I could have been even a few more tenths quicker, but fourth on the grid is very positive for the race.”
14th – ALBERT ARENAS #75 (1’33.888)
“It’s been a very difficult day because in Practice2 we weren’t able to be fast enough so we had to go through Q1. I tried my best and set a good time to make it through. I did manage to repeat the same performance in Q2, but it wasn’t enough: we’re quick, but we need to be more efficient to make another step forward.”
