THIRD PLACE FOR GONZALEZ ON OPENING DAY AT MISANO. ARENAS IS FIFTH.
QJMOTOR GRESINI Moto2 had an encouraging start to the thirteenth Grand Prix of the season at the Misano World Circuit Marco Simoncelli, with both riders within the top 5 and provisionally seeded to Q2. Manuel Gonzalez has been especially competitive as he finished third with a 1’35.781secs lap-time. The Spanish rider managed to immediately find the right feeling with his Kalex machine, which allowed him to comfortably record a series of quick lap-times. The goal will be to put together a good qualifying performance, which so far this year has been his weak spot. A front-row start will be crucial for him if he wants to battle for a podium finish in what is his team’s home event.
His teammate Albert Arenas was also very fast today as he set the fifth quickest lap-time of the day in 1’35.920secs, which gives him the provisional direct seed to Q2. He will need to confirm his performance tomorrow morning and in qualifying: the time attack is one of the strongest points for the #75, who has good chances of securing a front spot on the grid.
3rd – MANUEL GONZALEZ #18 (1’35.781)
“The feeling was good throughout the day: we recently did a two-day test here after the Austrian race so we had a good base to start with. We already made some set-up changes we had tried at Aragon, which could work in our favour in the final part of the race: now we also want to work on the single-lap performance as so far I haven’t been able to make the difference in qualifying. So we’ll work hard in order to do well in that department but also make sure to have the quick lap come easy. We had a good pace with the usual tyre, while I wasn’t able to put together a competitive lap with the fresh one, even though the new compound seems to be quicker. It could be a good weekend for us”.
5th – ALBERT ARENAS #75 (1’35.920)
“Today we mainly focused on the long-run performance. We also tried the new tyre which seem to have better grip. We were able to be quite quick: we still have some margin, so we’ll work on that, so we can have a good qualifying tomorrow”.
