PULL&BEAR ASPAR Team MotoGP - 01 Qatar GP - QP

2017-03-26 09:14
Grid to be decided on free practice positions as Álvaro Bautista and Karel Abraham prepare to line up thirteenth and seventeenth



AC7V5036 AsparTeamMotoGP_01Qatar 227
A heavy rainstorm that hit Qatar earlier today caused sufficient disruption at the circuit to prevent any of the three categories from taking part in qualifying this evening. As such tomorrow's grids will be decided by the combined classification from the three practice sessions that have taken place so far, meaning Maverick Viñales will start from pole position with Andrea Iannone and Marc Márquez alongside him on the front row.

Pull&Bear Aspar riders Álvaro Bautista and Karel Abraham were left frustrated tonight after not getting the opportunity to improve on their free practice positions, which means they will start from thirteenth and seventeenth respectively. Tomorrow evening's activity will consist of a thirty-minute warm-up session at 4.50pm local time with a 22-lap race scheduled to start at 9pm.



13th Álvaro Bautista 1'55.581:“The conditions tonight didn't allow us to ride the track in the wet to see what it was like under the floodlights. We weren't able to ride in the dry either because there were rivers running across the track and it wasn't safe. In the end the grid is decided by free practice. Obviously I would have preferred it for qualifying to go ahead so that I could push into Q2 and get a good position on the grid. It is always hard to start from thirteenth when you have better race rhythm than the guys in front of you, who perhaps just managed one good lap. It will be important to assess the track conditions tomorrow night and we'll see if we can race. Then it will be a case of getting into our rhythm, staying patient and trying to put together the best possible race in whatever conditions we find.”

17th Karel Abraham 1'56.003:“I am frustrated because I will be 17th on the grid but in every session, I have been higher up. Unfortunately, on the combined times I am 17th so it's annoying but that's the way it is. To be honest I was watching what was going on with the track today and it was really dangerous. Some parts of the track were completely dry and other parts had rivers running across. There was standing water in the gravel traps and from a rider's perspective it was very dangerous. It is a shame for us because we could have done better, also I feel we could have rescheduled qualifying for tomorrow instead of having a warm up but this is the decision of Race Direction, which we must respect and accept. We have some things we want to try tomorrow so hopefully it doesn't rain because we have seen today that it presents a big safety issue and it is not safe to ride. The forecast is not bad so hopefully it is correct!”

Source: AsparTeam

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