Vázquez and Martín make further strides with new FTR chassis despite crashes
Team JHK T-Shirt LaGlisse made another step forward in the qualifying for the Portuguese Grand Prix in Estoril. Efrén Vázquez was among the five fastest for almost the entire session and in the final minutes he was on for a good lap before he crashed. The Basque rider was close to getting on the front row, but a problem with the gear changer after his crash didn’t allow him to do another fast lap. Still, he’ll start tomorrow’s race from eighth position on the grid and expects a good result.
His teamate Adrián Martín suffered a heavy crash in the morning and in the afternoon he continued his progress despite being in pain and finished in 13th position. The most important thing is that both riders are more comfortable with their new FTR chassis every time they go out and for tomorrow they’ll be looking for a top ten finish.
Iván Moreno finished the qualifying in 26th place. The rider of Team Andalucía JHK T-Shirt LaGlisse improved his feeling with the bike considerably and has set his goal for tomorrow on scoring points.
#7 Efrén Vázquez 8º 1’48”299
“Overall I’m happy. The crash at the end was a shame, because I was on a pretty good lap and the team told me that I could have gotten very high up. I passed a rider in the chicane and I don’t know if the fork gave in, but I crashed. I got back up, but then when I shifted down at the end of the straight the gear selector doubled the gear change and it slipped through. The positive thing is that we were close, I don’t have a completely perfect feeling in the dry, but you also have to keep in mind that I haven’t even done 40 laps with this bike.”
#26 Adrián Martín 13º 1’48”871
“Despite the crash this morning in the second lap I think we’ve done well, because I’m still a bit dazed and my hand hurts quite a bit, but you have to keep working and get the bike right. We still have a bit to do so that I feel completely comfortable, but I think with some rest tonight we can be up front tomorrow, for sure. In the qualifying we did a few changes to improve, I don’t know if I was a bit nervous because of the crash, but I struggled a little.”
#21 Iván Moreno 26º 1’50”176
“I’m satisfied, because we improved day by day and little by little I feel more comfortable on the bike riding alone. Now that we’ve ridden in the dry and every time I got to know the bike better, we’ve seen that we have a big margin for improvement regarding suspension and geometry. The goal for tomorrow is to start well and latch on to some riders to improve, because the most important is that I did my laptime alone today and I think I can be further ahead in the race.”
Jaime Fdez-Avilés (Team Manager)
“The practice sessions we did in the dry were very important, because they helped us a lot to understand the bike and give our riders the right settings. It’s been a shame about Efrén who ran at a pace to get on first row and crashed in the last lap. After the crash from this morning Adrián needed some time to recover confidence with the bike and he finished on the fifth row, but the most important is that those two feel better on the new bike every time.”
Source: Team JHK T-Shirt LaGlisse
