Top6 with Franco Morbidelli in the first Hungarian Grand Prix for the Pertamina Enduro VR46 Racing Team. Fabio Di Giannantonio will have to go through Q1 tomorrow.
Balaton Park makes its official MotoGP debut with Friday's sessions, and the Pertamina Enduro VR46 Racing Team secures direct entry into Q2 thanks to Franco Morbidelli's sixth place finish. Fabio Di Giannantonio ends the day in thirteenth place.
Morbidelli had a strong start, finishing FP1 in seventh place despite two crashes. Franco improved his pace and laptime in qualifying, finishing with the sixth time (1:37.429). With a top-six finish, the #21 rider earned direct access to Q2 in Saturday's qualifying.
Friday was more complicated for Di Giannantonio, who finished FP1 with the twelfth time. Fabio also improved his time in practice (1:37.785), but ended up in thirteenth position. The #49 rider is out of the Top 10 by just one tenth of a second, and will have to compete in Q1.
The Pertamina Enduro VR46 Racing Team is back on track on Saturday for qualifying, which begins at 10:50 a.m. (local time CET). The Sprint race will follow at 3:00 p.m. (local time). The Hungarian Grand Prix will end on Sunday with the main race, that will start at 2 p.m. (local time).
FABIO DI GIANNANTONIO
"I'm not happy with today. On tracks with a lot of grip like Balaton, we struggle in the time attack, but we have an excellent bike for comebacks and in terms of race pace. I was very fast from the start of the session in terms of pace, but when it came the moment of the time attack, we only improved by a few tenths. We need to take a step forward in this area, but the pace is there. The track is fun, I like it. It's narrow, but beautiful. It's good to have very different tracks on the calendar."
FRANCO MORBIDELLI
"The track is very nice, very technical, even if it’s slow. The two crashes this morning caused us some difficulties, but then we were able to get everything back on track. We did a good job with both the medium and soft tyres, so we passed in Q2, which is the most important thing on Friday. I'm happy with the work done by the team after the two crashes, luckily I'm fine. I'm satisfied with the speed we had with the medium tyre and it's encouraging. Tomorrow it will be important to get the first two rows, because then we'll have a chance to have a good race, and that's the goal."
