MOTOGP QUALIFIERS AT MUGELLO
FIFTH ROW FOR ALEIX ESPARGARÓ AND EIGHTH FOR ANDREA IANNONE
In a qualifying session that had never been so fast, where all the Mugello track records were smashed, Aleix Espargaró also did much better than his times a year ago, also improving his starting position, lapping at 1’46.988 to earn fifth place in Q1 and therefore fifteenth (fifth row) on the starting grid for tomorrow.
Andrea Iannone had to settle for a time of 1’48.303 which stopped him on the eighth row. The race tomorrow will be a difficult one for both where they will have to come back from behind if they want a spot in the top ten, an undertaking which has been well within the potential of the RS-GP in this first part of the season.
ALEIX ESPARGARO’
“I think that getting below the 1’47 mark is a good result for the level we are at today. I certainly can’t be satisfied with the final position, but I did a good lap in a time that nobody has ever done with this bike, so I feel like I did as much as possible.In terms of top speed, we do not have big problems, but we are struggling too much in acceleration. I think I have a bit better race pace than I had at Le Mans, but it will be a very difficult race, with the heat and on a very difficult track.”
ANDREA IANNONE
“We are continuing to try a lot of different configurations and that does not help when you’re trying to find the best performance, especially in qualifiers that are this close right from the start. Yesterday we thought we were on the right path, but evidently we missed something. Starting so far back does not make life easy. It will be a complicated race that we’ll also need to use to better understand the reactions of the RS-GP.”
