It was a disappointing night for both Team San Carlo Honda Gresini riders tonight (Saturday) as Álvaro Bautista and Michele Pirro struggled to improve their pace in qualifying practice for the Grand Prix of Qatar. The Spaniard still has problems with the front end of his Honda RC213V and cannot push it as hard as he would like, whilst the Italian spent far too much time in the garage due to problems with the electronics of his CRT bike.
Álvaro Bautista:
"We have changed a lot of things without improving the bike and I still don't have confidence in the front. We are a long way back on the grid which is never good but we have the warm-up tomorrow to try to find a solution. Hopefully we can do that otherwise we are going to be on the back foot for the race, trying to finish it in the best shape possible. It is a shame and it's strange because we were happy with preseason testing but here I just don't have the feel. We'll keep our heads up and keep fighting."
Michele Pirro:
"There is not much to say tonight – I went out on a hard tyre and did a 1’59 but I came in to change the electronics and we had problems from that point on. Unfortunately we still have a long way to go and the electronics are going to take a lot of work. Tomorrow in the warm-up we will try to work out what is slowing us down and I am sure we can have a good race."
San Carlo Honda Gresini press release
