Good pace for Jorge Martín and Juanfran Guevara ahead of raceday at Brno

Today saw the Moto3 qualifying session for the Czech Grand Prix, with high temperatures on track at Brno. Times were fast at a circuit which is a favourite of many riders. Antonelli took pole position with the fastest time of the afternoon, ahead of Kent and Navarro. Only five riders broke the 2:08 barrier during the session, but the difference between first and eighteenth was less than one second.

Jorge Martin is repeating the same modus operandi deployed last week in Indianapolis. The MAPFRE Team Mahindra rider has been improving his feeling with each session, and this morning set the fifth best time in the last free practice. In the afternoon qualifying session he continued to work on his consistency to qualify ninth. For tomorrow he hopes improve on his top ten finish from Indianapolis.

Just two tenths and four places behind was Juanfran Guevara. He has also been making progress and now has regained the feeling and luck that he lacked in the first half of the season.

9th Jorge Martín 2.08.322 (12 laps):
“The weekend is going well. Maybe yesterday we found it hard to get on the pace, but this morning we saw that our pace was very consistent and we rode fast. That helped us to go into qualifying with confidence. We had slightly defective tyres which slowed our progress. We were able to regroup, I have relaxed for the last stint and thanks to some slipstreams I set a good time. At the end I saw Guevara and we helped one another a little. On the last lap I managed to pass him but I could not improve, because I ran a little wide. I am satisfied because we have a great pace and a good setup that will allow us to fight in the race tomorrow. At this circuit slipstreams are very important, and we will have to come out strong, go with the leading group and try to get the best possible result.”

13th Juanfran Guevara 2.08.517 (12 laps):
“I think we are doing a good job this weekend, and we have tried many things out -especially yesterday- to find a good balance on the bike. Yesterday we drew many conclusions that allowed us to continue improving this morning. We have also seen that Jorge set a good lap by himself, which is very positive, so we used his data and it proved very useful. In the qualifying session we pushed hard from the start; with the softer compound I felt very comfortable, but tomorrow we will have to use the harder rubber for the race. Overall we set a steady and satisfactory pace; we could have improved in some points, but I’m still happy. I think we’ve done a good job. Tomorrow in the warmup session we will confirm our tyre choice. The positive thing about the race is that I’m very confident braking.”