Repsol rider, who finished fifth today, fights for the top time in the only free practice session. His teammate, Jorge Navarro, goes tenth and Maria Herrera, 33rd.
In the only free practice session held on Friday at the Qatari track, Fabio Quartararo put in a great performance and finished just 0.152 off the best time of the night, set by Danny Kent. The Repsol rider surprised the paddock on his antepenultimate lap, in which he was on course to clock the fastest time until the last corner –where he came up against a large group of riders and lost time. He improved his best lap from yesterday by 9 tenths.
Jorge Navarro also improved his best time from yesterday and finished tenth, 6 tenths off Kent. The Spaniard improved by just over half second compared with his best time from Thursday. Maria Herrera, continuing her adaptation to the Qatari track, today completed the session thirty-third –improving half a second from yesterday.
Tomorrow the Moto3 riders will go directly into the first qualifying session of the 2015 season at the Losail circuit.
Fabio Quartararo
5th – 2:06.565, 15 laps, 81 km
“Today I felt very good on the bike; we achieved a good pace using worn tyres and we were able to go much faster when we fitted new tyres. I set a 2:06.565, but another rider got in my way and I think I could have improved the time. During practice yesterday and early on today we rode alone all the time, so in the latter part Jorge [Navarro] and I worked together to help each other improve our times. Tomorrow it will be important to look for good references to help us improve, or a fast group or a slipstream that allows me to lower my times. Although I have improved in every outing, I have to keep progressing. I think for the race we will have a good pace and I can be very competitive.”
Jorge Navarro
10th – 2:07.013, 16 laps, 86 km
“The practice session today was mainly to test things with my riding. We can see that there are places where I need to improve, so we focused on making two long runs to improve these things. In the first stint I felt very good at first. Afterwards the tyre wore down a lot, but once we changed it we had a good feeling again. The opening laps I rode alongside Fabio [Quartararo], using a bit of teamwork. When I was doing my best lap another rider blocked my path and prevented me from improving more, but the goal today was not to set a fast lap. We’ve got a good feeling and a good pace; I think tomorrow we will have a good qualifying session.”
Maria Herrera
33rd – 2:10.312, 16 laps, 86 km
“Today we continued to try more things with the bike and I feel better than yesterday, but I still need more laps to adapt to this circuit. Tomorrow we will continue working on the setup in order to get to the race in the best possible shape. This first Grand Prix will not be easy; you have to be mentally prepared because it’s all new, so I have to stay calm and gain as much experience as possible.”
