The Pertamina Enduro VR46 Racing Team secured direct access to Q2 on Friday at the Spanish Grand Prix with Fabio Di Giannantonio, who finished second. Franco Morbidelli is fourteenth.
The return to Europe proved to be very solid for the Pertamina Enduro VR46 Racing Team, which on Friday at the Spanish GP confirmed the positive feelings from the start of the season with Fabio Di Giannantonio. At the Circuito de Jerez – Ángel Nieto, he secured direct access to Q2 by finishing the Practice session in second place, while Franco Morbidelli was fourteenth.
It was an excellent start to the weekend for Di Giannantonio, who began the day by dominating FP1. In the afternoon Practice session, Fabio improved his laptime and showed a strong race pace, staying at the top of the timesheets for much of the session. The rider from Rome ended Friday at the Spanish GP in second place with a time of 1’36”037.
Friday in Jerez started on the right foot for Morbidelli as well, finishing FP1 in second place. Throughout the day, Franco worked on improving his feeling with the bike, and the balance of the first day of the Spanish GP is positive. The Italian-Brazilian rider improved his time in Practice (1’36”442) and is satisfied with the progress despite finishing fourteenth, missing out on direct access to Q2 by just 0.083 seconds.
The Pertamina Enduro VR46 Racing Team will return to the track on Saturday for qualifying, which will begin at 10:50 (local time). This will be followed by the Sprint race at 15:00 (local time). The Spanish Grand Prix will conclude with the main race on Sunday, starting at 14:00 (local time).
FABIO DI GIANNANTONIO
“I’m very happy, because I’ve never had this much speed before. I’m very proud of this package, which is very strong. Of course, we can still improve because we struggle a bit with the new tyre, but we’re working hard on that. There’s still work to do to be the fastest, but the feeling is excellent and we achieved today’s goal, which was to secure direct access to Q2. Now the goal for tomorrow is to get onto the front row, which is the best starting position to try to win the race.”
FRANCO MORBIDELLI
“We worked a lot today to improve the feeling compared to the first three races. This morning we started very well and this afternoon we continued working on the bike. Unfortunately, we missed Q2 by just a few hundredths: fourteenth place isn’t ideal, but the gap is encouraging and I see it as a good step forward. Tomorrow, we can make another step if we manage to put together all the data we’ve gathered so far. I’m very confident ahead of Saturday’s qualifying. For the race, we tend to struggle more in the early stages, but then we lap at good pace as the laps go on, so I’m confident in that respect as well."
