GP Catalunya: IMPROVEMENTS ON DAY TWO IN BARCELONA
Stefan Bradl wasn’t unhappy after he qualified for P18 on the grid because changes to the setting proved as positive.
But the atmosphere at round seven is still marred after the tragic loss of Spanish Moto2 rider Luis Salom. Salom had a crash during Friday afternoon’s FP3 when he lost control about his machine in entry to turn 12 and slipped in the same direction as the bike. He had no chance to react or do anything else to avoid to clash with the bike which was thrown back after its impact to the airfences. The entire MotoGP community is in deepest sorrow with Salom’s family and the Spanish SAG Team.
As an immediate measure after this terrible accident, the track’s layout is revised now which see also motorcycle racing to use the two chicanes in the last sector which are already used for car racing since years. So for this turn 12 is substantially mitigated. But for the entire MotoGP grid does it mean that they had to start almost from scratch to set up their bikes for the Barcelona circuit. In case of Stefan Bradl and his Aprilia Racing Team Gresini it was far more as the 2016 prototype of the factory’s Aprilia RS-GP is to race for the very first time in Catalunya this weekend. However, teams and riders had an extend FP3 session with 60 minutes this morning in order to adapt to the changed situation out on track. Bradl and his crew were able to use this session to its utmost and also FP4 after lunch time was a welcome opportunity for them to work on the electronic and gearing.
During qualifying practice, however, it was confirmed what was already evident on Friday. Because of the track characteristics in Barcelona and the summer temperatures, tyre management during the race will be the main task to deal with on Sunday. But apart from that, Bradl succeeded to improve his feeling with the bike and for the conditions.
#6 Stefan BRADL (Aprilia Racing Team Gresini, Aprilia), Grid position 18th – 1´45.892 (7/7):
“Even though it’s not seen at first but we improved compared to yesterday. Not so much in the standings but foremost the changes we made are taking us in the right direction. So for this I’m definitely more confident for tomorrow. We found out some advantages with the hard front tyre thanks to some tests during FP4, gaining more stability. But tyre management will definitely the main concern during the race. We tried many different things to make it easier to look at them but 25 laps tomorrow will be rather demanding. The situation should be similar for everyone. We will need to find a way to conserve the tyres as much as possible. It will be an interesting race day anyway.”
MotoGP™ Qualifying Classification:
1 #93 Marc MARQUEZ / SPA / Repsol Honda Team / Honda / 1´43.589
2 #99 Jorge LORENZO / SPA / Movistar Yamaha MotoGP / Yamaha / 1´44.056 +0.467
3 #26 Dani PEDROSA / SPA / Repsol Honda Team / Honda / 1´44.307 +0.718
18 #6 Stefan BRADL / GER / Aprilia Racing Team Gresini / Aprilia / 1´45.892 +2.306