The floodlights were back on for the third consecutive night at Qatar’s Losail International Circuit, which was covered by a thin layer of sand following a day of strong winds in Doha.
Andrea Iannone continues to suffer from arm pump in his right forearm, which prevented the Italian from riding his bike aggressively during this evening’s qualifying sessions. Nevertheless, the runner-up position obtained in Q1 allowed him to take part in the Q2, in which he clocked an excellent time of 1'56.523, putting him in tenth position on the starting grid for tomorrow night’s race.
Andrea Iannone – Energy T.I. Pramac Racing Team
“Unfortunately, after riding in Q1, I only had one soft tyre left for Q2, or I probably could have done something better. Along with my team, I want to understand how to change my riding, because I have some problem in tight corners. However, I improved my time in every session, and I think that’s absolutely a positive. My goal now is to finish the race inside the top ten.”
Having just missed out on making the top ten in the free-practice sessions, which would have advanced him directly into Q2 for this evening’s debut of MotoGP’s new qualifying format, Ben Spies had to take part in Q1.
However, just minutes into the final free-practice session, the American lost the front end of his bike on the slippery track surface and suffered a hard fall. Fortunately, he didn’t land on his still-recovering left shoulder, but the crash nonetheless affected his performance in Q1.
Ben Spies - Ignite Pramac Racing Team
“The session was going okay for us at first. We were just working on race setup with old tyres on from yesterday, and we actually started to get faster and gain some confidence. Then I just got into turn 2 too hot and I grabbed a lot of front brake and went down at pretty good speed. Fortunately, we were able to get up and go out with the second bike. The problem was that the back of the bike had a completely different setting, and I couldn’t get up to the same speed that I was at before and get into Q2. Overall, it was good to get back on the bike, and it was good that we were getting up to speed. I’m sorry for the team, and we’ll come back tomorrow.”
Pramac Racing Press Release
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