Positive start for Maverick Viñales & Ana Carrasco as Qatar GP weekend gets underway
The curtain has risen for the Moto3 world championship under the floodlights of the Losail circuit in Qatar, and Team Calvo has started the weekend in a very positive way.
As expected, Maverick took it easy to see how he would feel on the bike after the injury he sustained in Jerez. Before getting on the bike, Dr. Xavier Mir had removed the last two stitches in Maverick’s right ring finger, and even though he felt pain while riding, he finished at just a little over 1 second behind the fastest.
His team mate in Team Calvo, Ana Carrasco, focused mainly on getting to know the circuit which was completely new to her. In the second session, her bike suffered a small problem with the electronics and she could not ride the way she would have wanted to, but despite this, Ana improved continuously. Today will be the last free practice sessions and on Saturday the qualifying sessions will be held where the riders of Team Calvo hope to climb to higher positions on the starting grid.
Maverick Viñales #25 – 2’08”602 – 9th
The truth is I’m very happy because it was the first time back on the bike after the operation and it went quite well. I’m looking forward to Friday’s sessions so I can improve the lap times. I need to take it step by step, we’ve not been pushing too hard today and I believe we’ve done well. We’re only doing a few laps to preserve ourselves for the qualifying and more importantly for Sunday. At the moment the finger is doing ok, obviously it hurts a bit but it’s ok. The bike’s worked very well and we’re returning to our pace.
Ana Carrasco #22 – 2’12”612 – 31st
The first practice went really well. I basically focused on learning the track and I could ride behind some other riders to better understand the race line of the circuit. It’s a difficult circuit because the corners are very long and it’s difficult to find the right line. In the second session we had a problem with the bike, but despite this I’m still satisfied with the work we’ve done because in just 3 laps I could improve my lap time that I set during the first session and that’s important. I’m happy with this first day.
Pablo Nieto (Team Director)
It’s been a very positive first day if we take into account that Mack has an injured finger. But the most important thing is that he feels ok with the bike, and even though obviously his finger hurts, we hope it’ll get better and won’t cause too many problems. With Ana I’m very happy, because in the second session she could hardly do any laps and she still managed to improve her lap time. I think she can do very well. For Friday’s sessions we hope that Maverick can get a bit closer to the fastest guys on track and that Ana will gain more experience on a track that’s new to her.
Source: Team Calvo
