GP of JAPAN: GREAT QUALIFYING PERFORMANCE
Stefan Bradl missed out to jump into this afternoon’s QP2 to fight for a top twelfth starting position by a margin.
However, with 13th spot on the grid for tomorrow’s MotoGP race at the demanding Twin Ring Motegi he matched his best season qualifying result thus far. Bradl missed the hard fought time attack for the first four rows by just 0.173 seconds to play his role amongst the big names of this year’s championship. Nevertheless, the Bavarian rider remained with both feet on the ground but at the same time he was pleased with today’s achievements in terms of the bike settings.
#6 Stefan BRADL (Aprilia Racing Team Gresini, Aprilia), Grid position 13th – 1´45.432 (6/7):
“I’m really happy about my today’s performance. Of course, it would have been great to qualify for QP2, which I missed by a whisker but I’m pleased with P13 on the grid at all. Anyway, we did an excellent job today for which I’m more happy because we have made significant progress. In addition, my lap during qualifying was fantastic even though the biggest achievement was to work on our pace during the final free practice. We were working a lot with used tyres this morning, just in order to solve the problems that we endured we last time out in Aragon during the later stage of race as soon the grip level dropped dramatically. Beyond that, we found some solution in respect to the suspension this afternoon. Hopefully the weather remains stable for Sunday just to be able to put in a strong race performance too and to collect some points to our tally.”
Qualifying Classification:
1 Jorge LORENZO / SPA / Movistar Yamaha MotoGP / Yamaha / 1´43.790
2 Valentino ROSSI / ITA / Movistar Yamaha MotoGP / Yamaha / 1´43.871 +0.081
3 Marc MARQUEZ / SPA / Repsol Honda Team / Honda / 1´44.216 +0.426
13 Stefan BRADL / GER / Aprilia Racing Team Gresini / Aprilia / 1´45.432 +1.642 (Q1)