SAN MARINO GP - Fifth row start for Álvaro Bautista at Misano

2018-09-08 19:09
Ángel Nieto Team rider to line up fifteenth with Karel Abraham on row eight



The San Marino GP saw another Saturday afternoon double for Ducati with Italian machinery in the top two positions on the grid at Misano, although only one of them was a factory bike. Jorge Lorenzo took his second straight pole position, despite not being able to take full benefit of it at Silverstone, and is joined on the front row by Independent team rider Jack Miller, his best qualifying result since his pole at Argentina. Maverick Viñales completes the front row with Andrea Dovizioso, Marc Márquez and Cal Crutchlow behind him. With fourteen riders inside the same second, the San Marino GP promises to be as close as ever.

The Ángel Nieto Team will start the San Marino GP from the fifth row of the grid with Álvaro Bautista and the eighth for Karel Abraham. The Spaniard was unable to improve his best time from yesterday in free practice and progress directly to Q2 and in Q1 he again finished just a couple of tenths short. Despite that, Bautista is still aiming for the top ten tomorrow with a good start, whilst Karel Abraham was looking good for a top twenty position before a crash on his second run of qualifying. The Czech rider dropped several positions at the end of the session to finish 24th but he is confident of a recovery tomorrow.



15th Álvaro Bautista 1:32.792: “The pace is very fast, inside the lap record, and the times are close. I’ve also done my best ever laps here. This morning we were unable to test some of the things we wanted to and this afternoon we were focused on tyres, making sure the soft can last race distance. We have to improve a little the feeling with the bike, especially in mid-corner, because I am struggling to stay on line. It will be tough because track conditions are constantly changing but we will do our best. I’m hoping for a good start and a strong race to the top ten. When not everything is right, that’s a good target to have.”

24th Karel Abraham 1:33.812: “Of course I’m disappointed with qualifying because I think we are capable of much better. I’m not saying I could have been tenth today but maybe nineteenth or something was a realistic goal. My first run showed that we can be strong but on my second exit I caught a slower rider, who held me up a lot, and I also had some problems with the front. I lost it many times, then came to the slowest corner on the track and with no brakes and a little bit of throttle I suddenly lost the front completely. It surprised me and I’m still not really sure what happened but it meant I didn’t set a lap time on the second exit. I dropped a few positions in the last minutes so it’s unfortunate, but I know that we are capable of setting some consistent lap times, faster than the guys in front of me, which means tomorrow we can recover those three or four positions I lost today."

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