IN AN EXTREMELY COMPETITIVE QUALIFYING SESSION ALEIX BARELY MISSES Q2 BY 37 THOUSANDTHS
LEFT SHOULDER INJURY FOR ANDREA WHO WILL NOT BE ON THE GRID TOMORROW
At the end of a very close qualifying session, where he missed going through to Q2 by just 37 thousandths, Espargaró earned a spot on the fifth row of the Misano GP starting grid. Aleix confirmed his good performance in the timed practice sessions and, although he missed going through to Q2 by so little, he is still confident that he will be able to do well in the race tomorrow.
Andrea Iannone, on the other hand, will not be on the starting grid tomorrow. After his crash yesterday in F1 that reawakened pain in his left shoulder which had been injured in previous seasons, limiting his riding ability, the Italian rider crashed again, landing on the injured area, in the early stages of FP3 and in FP4. He was checked out in the Medical Centre straight away and had an MRI done, after which he was declared unfit to race for the rest of the weekend. Now the goal, which is anything but a given, is to try to recover in time for the Aragón round next week.
ALEIX ESPARGARO’
“It was a demanding day. The track is treacherous, as the many crashes demonstrate. We found a good base setup quickly, but I struggled when it came to increasing the pace because, in comparison with yesterday, we were unable to take a clear step forward. But in qualifying I gave it my all and we missed going through to Q2 by just a few hundredths. With a careful race, we can aim for a top-10 finish. It won’t be easy, but a lot of things can happen on Sunday.”
ANDREA IANNONE
“After the tests we did here in late August, I arrived at the Misano weekend really confident that I would do well. Instead, things went awry from the beginning, with the crash in the first session that conditioned everything. This race was extremely important to me, but now the most important thing is to recover quickly and in the best possible way.”
