Maverick Viñales (Blusens Avintia) took his fourth pole position of the Moto3 season with FTR thanks to a stunning late effort at Mugello this afternoon. Trailing the fastest time by a tenth coming into the final sector of his final lap, Viñales was able to negotiate his way through traffic in the last direction change and long left-hand corner into the straight, picking up a slipstream on the way to blast his way to the top the timesheets and the front of tomorrow’s grid by a massive 0.421 second advantage.
Efren Vazquez (JHK Laglisse) and Niccolo Antonelli (San Carlo Gresini Moto3) both qualified on the second row of the grid using the British chassis in fourth and sixth place respectively whilst Romano Fenati (Team Italia FMI) is one row behind them in eighth.
In MotoGP Michele Pirro (Team San Carlo Honda Gresini) recovered from a crash this morning to qualify fourteenth this afternoon whilst in Moto2 Alex De Angelis (NGM Mobile Forward Racing) continued his excellent adaptation to the FTR chassis qualifying fifth fastest just six days after finishing on the podium in Germany.
Maverick Viñales (1st in Moto3): “That was a very exciting qualifying session; it seemed like a race out there with all the riders who were on track. There were a few times in which I was riding a fast lap on my own and other riders latched on and put me off. I got a little annoyed, but then I thought that it was best just to let them pass and slipstream them on the straight. I was able to take pole on the final sector, despite being behind other riders.”
Efrén Vazquez (4th in Moto3): “I’m happy because we have worked really well over the four sessions and made constant progress. We haven’t changed much with the set-up because it’s a complicated circuit and it is the rider who can make the biggest difference here. I pushed myaself hard and it worked out for us. Tomorrow I will try to get a good start, which is feasible from fourth on the grid, and fight hard because it’s going to be a long race.”
Niccolo Antonelli (6th in Moto3): “I had to get past so many people this afternoon to set a good lap time. No matter when you went out there were riders everywhere looking for a tow. Maybe I should have backed off and waited for a gap to appear in front of me but anyway I am happy to have qualified on the second row, which isn’t bad, and I think we have the pace to have a good race.”
Alex de Angelis (5th in Moto2): ““I am very happy, this is my best qualifying position so far this season. Its obvious that the goal was to be in the first row on the grid but second row is good as well, considering that this is my third race with the FTR. I have even improved my best personal lap time here from last year and my pace is really good and the tyres feel good too. I don’t want to say that we have solved but rather improved the problem that we had with an empty tank, we worked on it a lot this weekend. Tomorrow we will have to make a really good start and try to stay with the front group.”
Michele Pirro (14th in MotoGP) “It was a shame that we had another crash this morning on the final lap, which caused quite a bit of damage to our number one bike. With so little time available we preferred to use the other bike for qualifying and even though I didn’t have the same feeling I was able to reduce the gap to the Aprilia. They are still too far ahead for our liking but the guys will have a close look at the data tonight and no doubt give me a good bike for the race tomorrow. Once again they have done an amazing job and skipped lunch to make sure I had two bikes available. I want to give them and the sponsors a result to be proud of tomorrow.”
Fabio Barchitta (FTR MotoGP Marketing Manager): “Another incredible performance from Viñales to set pole position with a new record despite having to pass several riders throughout the last lap. We have four riders in the top eight in Moto3 and this is very good for us. Alex de Angelis’ confidence continues to grow with our bike and it was only traffic that prevented him from qualifying on the front row by a very small margin. Simone Corsi had crash at the end of the front straight and unfortunately he has broken his rib so we will have to wait on him for tomorrow. We are satisfied with the performance of our MotoGP bike here – obviously we still have work to do to close in on the top CRT but hopefully we can take another step tomorrow.”