The Pertamina Enduro VR46 Racing Team secured direct access to Q2 in the United States GP with Fabio Di Giannantonio, who finished third in Practice. Franco Morbidelli ended Friday in twentieth position.
The United States GP is one of the most anticipated events for the Pertamina Enduro VR46 Racing Team, and it did not disappoint expectations: on Friday, the team secured direct Q2 access with Fabio Di Giannantonio, who finished Practice in third place. Franco Morbidelli faced a more complicated Friday and ended in twentieth position, meaning he will have to go through Q1 on Saturday.
The Circuit of the Americas is one of Di Giannantonio’s favorites, and he confirmed it today, starting his weekend in great shape. Fabio was second in FP1 and improved his laptime in Practice, where he even led the timesheet despite a minor crash in the early stages of the session. With a time of 2’01”114, the rider from Rome finished Practice in third place, securing direct access to Q2 in qualifying.
Friday started with positive feelings for Morbidelli, who was in Top10 at the end of FP1. However, a crash – without consequences – in Practice complicated Franco’s work and prevented him from fully expressing his potential. The Italian-Brazilian rider ended a difficult day in twentieth position and will have to take part in Q1 on Saturday.
The Pertamina Enduro VR46 Racing Team will return to the track on Saturday for qualifying, which will begin at 10:50 (local time, -6 CET). This will be followed by the Sprint at 15:00 (local time). The United States GP will conclude with the race, which will start on Sunday at 15:00 (local time, -7 CET due to the time change).
FABIO DI GIANNANTONIO
“I’m happy, the feeling with the bike has been good right away since this morning. Practice wasn’t easy because I crashed in the early stages, and it was difficult to get back into rhythm, also because the tyres were very cold. But then I found my pace again and we improved a lot. That allowed us to put together a great lap. Today was a bit tricky in terms of grip: with the soft tyre you can accelerate better when there’s more grip, but at the same time it’s less stable compared to the medium. We need to find the right balance between stability and grip, then we’ll decide what’s best for tomorrow. The special livery always gives me extra motivation, we will use it on Sunday and try to do our best to show off all these colours.”
FRANCO MORBIDELLI
“It was a difficult day: I don’t have a good feeling and we tried many things that didn’t work the way we wanted. I have no grip and I’m struggling a lot. We tried to fix the issue we had in both Thailand and Brazil, but it’s not going as we hoped. Still, tomorrow we’ll try something else and see. We’re working hard and will continue to do so to make some steps on Saturday.”
