THE SUN IS BACK AT MISANO: SEVENTH PLACE FOR GONZALEZ
The first session was to no use due to conditions of the track, still wet following the torrential rain that fell during previous days. Then, the sun made its appearance again at Misano: Manuel Gonzalez made the most of Practice 1 to successfully work on his race pace as he also set the seventh quickest lap-time of the day in 1’35.880. Tomorrow, he will need to work some more on the time attack to improve by few more tenths on the single-lap performance.
Two tenths away from him, in thirteenth place, sits his teammate Albert Arenas, who after a few set-up modifications managed to do some small improvement compared to Misano1. This weekend, Matteo Ferrari is also on track as the local rider made the most of the Friday action to find the best feeling with the Moto2 machine. Practice 2 will be key tomorrow to get as close as possible to Q2 and aim at a spot on the front rows of the grid.
7th – MANUEL GONZALEZ #18 (1’35.880)
“Today we unfortunately were able to work only in one session, because in the free practice the track wasn’t completely dry. We worked well in the afternoon and tried to improve on the weak points we had in the previous race and our race pace got better. We still need to find the best feeling that can enable us to push to the limit and set a good lap time in qualifying.”
13th – ALBERT ARENAS #75 (1’36.018)
“We made some changes to the bike set-up compared to Misano1: unfortunately, we could only use the afternoon session so we had to squeeze the work programme. We still managed to improve by a few tenths and bettering our potential for the weekend. We will need to confirm the step tomorrow in Practice2, before logging a competitive lap-time in qualifying.”
26th – MATTEO FERRARI #23 (1’37.197)
“It was a good Friday, but too bad for this morning as we didn’t lap much: it was a key session for us. I’m still happy with the work done in the afternoon and we also managed to try the new tyre, which is surely a step forward compared to the SC0. Lap after lap, we improved and I’m happy with the base set-up we have; we now know where we can improve both with regards to the set-up and my riding style. We will try to get as close as possible to Q2 tomorrow: I’m confident about it as after only one session I’m already very close to the times from testing, so I’m happy with day one.”
