The Italian signed his second consecutive pole position at Le Mans with a record time, challenging the dominator in France, the leader Fabio Quartararo
Everything that happened at the Le Mans circuit during the two days of testing could come to nothing if the weather forecasts are correct and rain hits the French circuit this Sunday, something not uncommon. In fact, the last two MotoGP races were held under those conditions. But in the meantime, the tests left several details behind. The first, that of the exhibition in terms of pace by Fabio Quartararo, whose only hindrance will be the position on the grid.
“I know my ideal time was better, but I’m so on the limit that I have to make some mistakes in one lap, that’s normal. As for the race pace, I know we have something different, and most importantly we have the opportunity to fight for the win,” the Yamaha rider confirmed after drawing fourth fastest, even coming out of the front row where he placed, in reverse order, Aleix Espargaró, Jack Miller and Pecco Bagnaia Espargaró once again shows why he is where he is in the general classification; Miller put his time at the wheel of his partner Bagnaia, who, like in Jerez set a record lap on a day when the riders devoted themselves to pulverizing the stopwatch.
Already on Friday afternoon, Enea Bastianini had set a record that was better than the absolute record held by Johann Zarco since 2018: a 1’31.148 compared to that 1’31.185. A pole, that of the Frenchman, while the Italian had driven a simple fast lap in free practice. This Saturday the bar was raised: precisely Zarco lowered the limit to 1’30,537, a brutal bite, while eight other riders also improved what Bastianini had put down on Friday. In the official Bagnaia he finished the job: 1’30.450.
“It wasn’t a perfect lap like the one in Jerez, but I’m very happy,” commented the Ducati Italian, who preferred to keep the sensations his bike had left him good enough to believe in his chances of being able to beat the favorite Quartararo again. “If Fabio was much faster before, I think we’re closer now,” he admitted, after making some changes to his bike that he hopes to benefit, especially when the tires start to lose performance, in a scheduled 27-lap race.
“We will see what the weather conditions are as it looks like everything could be very changeable. I wish and hope it doesn’t rain because we have a really good pace to fight forward,” said Aleix Espargaró, before he had the chance to fight for a podium again. Joan Mir and Álex Rins, involuntary protagonists of the weekend due to the announcement of Suzuki’s departure, will start in seventh and eighth respectively, with Jorge Martín in ninth, while Marc Márquez had to settle for tenth position, again having to resort to the references of his rivals, Quartararo in the morning and Mir in the afternoon.
“History will not change much, although it is true that with rain the whole range opens up, to be able to do a race, also to fall, to take more risks or even suffer,” explained the six-time MotoGP rider. champion out. as In this situation, a more uncontrolled scenario could be appropriate. “A long race in the water is very uncomfortable, but if we think of a dry race with a good start, I think we could be fifth, sixth or seventh. Finishing later would be a gift,” he predicted.
And it is that, and as mentioned before, in the pits it is considered very likely that the water will be the protagonist of the day. Something Pedro Acosta wouldn’t do very well, who ended up really sticking his head out to sign his first pole position in Moto2, a position that gives him air to fight for everything in the race and thus his record in the category to debut. “It looks like we have arrived in this race, but we have arrived in every race. In Qatar I went back to 12th despite the bad start, in Indonesia I finished ninth on a penalty, in Argentina I started 17th and finished seventh, Austin was ahead after a start in 10th and although we crashed we were there , what the important… In Jerez I was ahead, even in tenth I came back and after the crash we were fast. It hasn’t been anything from Jerez to here, but rather a process that has taken us more time than we would have liked, but in the end we are there,” the Murcian concluded.
Source: La Verdad
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