Bastianini 11th on the #SpanishGP grid, 17th for Di Giannantonio

The racing weekend of Team Gresini MotoGP had started off in very different fashion and with a different goal in terms of grid positioning, especially in light of the second place scored by Enea Bastianini in yesterday’s free practice and the smooth path to Q2. The afternoon, however, was not as kind for the rider #23 who crashed out at turn eight with too little time left to get back and give it another go.

The race winner at Losail and Austin will be forced to a comeback tomorrow (from 14:00 GMT+2) from eleventh place on the grid. He still has the race pace to make up for the poor starting position.

Fabio Di Giannantonio put together a good performance as he qualified 17th under an unusual spring heat even for Andalucia. The Italian rider #49 once again logged his personal best lap-time at the Spanish track, which came thanks to some hard work done to find the right weight balance on his GP21 machine.

11th – ENEA BASTIANINI #23 (1’37.618s)

Not my day. This morning we managed to get a direct seed to Q2, but the feeling with the bike is not the best. With the softer tyre it is not too bad, but with we’re struggling for the medium one so the warm up will be key in that sense. Obviously the afternoon crash didn’t help, as I could have at least started from a better position on the grid: I’m not sure what happened as the front tucked at turn eight. I do have a lack of feeling with the front-end of the bike, but the good news is that I did not hurt myself in the process.

17th – FABIO DI GIANNANTONIO #49 (1’37.882s)

We made a step forward also today as I set my best lap-time at this track and the feeling with the bike keeps growing. We worked hard to find a set-up that I like and now that we’re in the right direction, I need more track-time to improve. Qualifying was overall a positive one.