Season-best qualifying for Faubel, Moncayo hoping to join podium fight from 11th
With no fewer than seventeen riders lapping inside the same second in Moto3 qualifying today it promises to be 22 laps of electrifying racing in the first ever Dutch TT for the new minor category tomorrow. There was a wide-open battle for pole position this afternoon but in the end the experience of Sandro Cortese shone through, with KTM’s latest engines seemingly doing the trick as four of the Austrian manufacturers’ machines qualified in the top five.
Race pace looks like being around the 1’44 mark and BANKIA Aspar Team riders Héctor Faubel and Alberto Moncayo are both equipped to run with that. The Spanish pair start from fourth and eleventh place respectively, Faubel securing his best grid position so far this season on his final lap and Moncayo also making late improvements to suggest that they can both be involved in the battle for podium positions in tomorrow’s race.
4th Héctor Faubel 1.44.074 (17 laps): “We’re happy because we’ve been working hard over the last few races and not had the result to show for it up to today. We only just missed out on a front row start but tomorrow we start with the lead group at last and we don’t have to fight our way through. We’ll have to make a good start and fight hard to hold our position in the race, try and be a bit smarter than Montmeló and make sure we’re still fighting for the podium at the end. It will be a tough race because there are no secrets to Assen and that will make it hard for anybody to make a break but if they do we have to be ready to go with them. We fitted a new engine this morning that has given us more acceleration and hopefully we can feel the benefit tomorrow.”
11th Alberto Moncayo 1.44.408 (18 laps): “The weekend has gone well to be honest. This morning we worked on the setting from yesterday and we were up there again. I like the chassis and even though we tried the new engine it was making a strange noise so we went back to the old one. It seems the new engine has better acceleration but we have to work with what we have at the moment and try to keep improving the chassis, which already feels great thanks to the great work being done by the team. The lap times are close with the top seventeen riders inside the same second so it looks like it will be a group race and I hope to be in there fighting for the podium.”
Source: Aspar Team Press Release