Jordi Torres & Nico Terol finding form again at Mugello qualifying

Mugello is traditionally the territory of the home riders but in all three classes today the Italians were forced to play second fiddle to Spain as Tito Rabat followed up Alex Rins and Marc Márquez in Moto3 and MotoGP respectively to take pole in Moto2.

Rabat looks to have the pace to turn his pole position into a victory tomorrow but he will know only too well how difficult it is to escape at a circuit where the slipstream is so important. It seems certain to be another close race in the intermediate class.

MAPFRE Aspar riders Jordi Torres and Nico Terol were finally smiling again yesterday and the good feeling continued today as their good feeling with the bike and track converted into solid grid positions for tomorrow’s race.

Torres was fifth fastest in this morning’s final free practice session and seventh this afternoon, meaning he starts from the front of the third row, whilst Terol was unfortunate not to qualify higher than eighteenth and is confident of making up positions to finish in the points.

7th Jordi Torres 1.53.167 (19 laps):
“The front fork change has given me a lot more confidence this weekend. I have rediscovered my best form on the bike and you can see it in the lap times. We set a fast pace this morning and then managed to improve a little bit more this afternoon. We are still lacking a tiny bit of confidence but we are still adapting to the changes to the bike that we have introduced this weekend. We tried a setting in qualifying that wasn’t quite right but we are on the right lines now and that’s the positive thing. We just need to make some small improvements now to shave some more time off the lap. We have been going through a tough period so to see ourselves so close to the front again is a big boost. It will be a tough race because there will be a lot of fighting from the start but there are some sections, such as the switchbacks, where I feel really comfortable so I will try to make the most of them.”

18th Nico Terol 1.53.834 (19 laps):
“We are back on the right path this weekend and finally my feeling with the bike is back. This morning I set a pretty strong pace but we struggled a little this afternoon so I think we are still short of some consistency in terms of our race pace. I felt comfortable at the start of qualifying but when we put the second tyre in I had some chatter. It’s a shame because I think we could have taken another step this afternoon and qualified a little bit higher up the grid but in any case I am happy that my confidence with the bike has improved and we can make up some positions tomorrow.”

Source: Aspar Media