Quartararo suffers light crash in qualifying and will start from thirteenth. Navarro places eighteenth and Herrera twenty-seventh.
Fabio Quartararo started the second day of practice for the Italian Grand Prix well, but a small crash in the qualifying session ruined his chance to fight for pole position. The Frenchman topped the timesheets in the morning practice session with a best time of 1:57.407. Teammate Jorge Navarro set the eleventh fastest time, just over 1 second behind, and Maria Herrera ended the session thirty-fifth.
In the qualifying session to decide the grid for Sunday morning’s Moto3 race, Quartararo quickly moved up into the top positions, with Navarro and Herrera somewhat off the pace. Quartararo was up to fifth, but six minutes before the end of the session —and riding at pole position pace— the Frenchman suffered a small crash at Turn 10 which prevented his completing the session. In his absence, several of his rivals overtook him in the standings. Tomorrow he will start from the fourth row of the grid, having set the thirteenth fastest time.
Jorge Navarro made steady progress throughout the day and will start tomorrow from the sixth row, thanks to his setting the eighteenth best time. The Spaniard is optimistic about his chances in tomorrow’s race. Maria Herrera, who has also made consistent improvement, suffered with traffic during qualifying. Tomorrow she will start from twenty seventh.
Fabio Quartararo
13th – 1:57.741, 36 laps, 189 km
“Today has gone very well. In the morning I did a good job with new tyres and we saw that we had a good pace. I’m happy and I know that if I do not make any mistakes again, tomorrow I will be up at the front. I saw that Fenati had set a really good time and I pushed with everything I had before crashing. The starting position here matters very little, because the races are usually run in groups. I hope to make a good start tomorrow.”
Jorge Navarro
18th – 1:57.905, 33 laps, 173 km
“Since Friday we’ve improved in every session, both in terms of our times and our feeling with the bike, so with used tyres I have a good pace for the race. We needed a slipstream on the two laps we did in qualifying if we wanted to improve by a few tenths; when everything is so tight, it is very noticeable. I think both myself and the team worked to the maximum. Tomorrow we will have to grit our teeth because we are starting from a little far back, but if we take things calmly and do things right, it could be a good day.”
Maria Herrera
27th – 1:58.605, 31 laps, 163 km
“At first I went out with Isaac [Viñales] and I felt more comfortable. With the team we worked on my lines from yesterday and today I rode with more confidence, knowing the track a bit better. We were able to go under the 2:00 mark thanks to that. At the end we put on a new set of tyres to try to lower our times and, as always happens with this category, we came across a group of riders waiting to catch a slipstream on the long straight. It was a shame, because I feel strong and I think tomorrow I can gain a few places.”
