FIM Moto2 World Championship
Mugello, Italy
May 31, 2014
Qualifying Results (all using Honda engines and Dunlop tires):
1. Esteve “Tito” RABAT, Spain (KALEX), 1:52.718
2. Sam LOWES, UK (SPEED UP), 1:52.901
3. Sandro CORTESE, Germany (KALEX), 1:52.915
4. Jonas FOLGER, Germany (KALEX), 1:53.008
5. Dominique AEGERTER, Switzerland (SUTER), 1:53.093
6. Luis SALOM, Spain (KALEX), 1:53.162
7. Jordi TORRES, Spain (SUTER), 1:53.167
8. Franco MORBIDELLI, Italy (KALEX), 1:53.258
9. Thomas LUTHI, Switzerland (SUTER), 1:53.291
10. Marcel SCHROTTER, Germany (TECH 3), 1:53.313
11. Mika KALLIO, Finland (KALEX), 1:53.331
12. Johann ZARCO, France (CATERHAM SUTER), 1:53.353
13. Mattia PASINI, Italy (KALEX), 1:53.505
14. Axel PONS, Spain (KALEX), 1:53.589
15. Takaaki NAKAGAMI, Japan (KALEX), 1:53.610
16. Maverick VIÑALES, Spain (KALEX), 1:53.665
17. Xavier SIMEON, Belgium (SUTER), 1:53.827
18. Nicolas TEROL, Spain (SUTER), 1:53.834
19. Ricard CARDUS, Spain (TECH 3), 1:53.905
20. Julian SIMON, Spain (KALEX), 1:54.002
21. Randy KRUMMENACHER, Switzerland (SUTER), 1:54.152
22. Simone CORSI, Italy (KALEX), 1:54.238
23. Lorenzo BALDASSARRI, Italy (SUTER), 1:54.265
24. Louis ROSSI, France (KALEX), 1:54.778
25. Hafizh SYAHRIN, Malaysia (KALEX), 1:54.945
26. Josh HERRIN, USA (CATERHAM SUTER), 1:54.954
27. Tetsuta NAGASHIMA, Japan (TSR), 1:54.958
28. Gino REA, UK (SUTER), 1:55.066
29. Anthony WEST, Australia (SPEED UP), 1:55.093
30. Alex DE ANGELIS, San Marino (SUTER), 1:55.268
31. Robin MULHAUSER, Switzerland (SUTER), 1:55.500
32. Azlan SHAH, Malaysia (KALEX), 1:55.723
33. Roman RAMOS, Spain (SPEED UP), 1:56.240
34. Thitipong WAROKORN, Thailand (KALEX), 1:56.495
More, from a press release issued by Marc VDS Racing Team:
Dominant Rabat on pole at Mugello
Mugello, Italy – 31 May 2014: Moto2 World Championship leader, Tito Rabat, will start from pole position for the fourth time this season, after dominating qualifying at Mugello this afternoon. Mika Kallio will start the Italian Moto2 Grand Prix from 11th on the grid, after struggling with set up and traffic in today’s 45-minute timed session.
Rabat topped the timesheet in all three dry sessions at Mugello this weekend, slipping down the order only in the wet session yesterday afternoon. The 25-year-old Spaniard heads into tomorrow’s race full of confidence and determined to stamp his authority back on the championship that he has led from the opening round in Qatar.
While Rabat has ridden a wave of confidence all weekend, Kallio has struggled to find a set up to suit the demands of the Mugello circuit. The Finn started yesterday on the same set up as in Le Mans, but was forced to make the bike more reactive to handle the fast changes of direction for which Mugello is renowned. Unfortunately this robbed him of the front-end feel needed to push over the limit on a quick qualifying lap.
Livio Loi endured a disappointing qualifying session, which he finished in 28th place. The 17-year-old Belgian made some radical changes to his Kalex-KTM Moto3 machine today, after suffering with a lack of feedback from the front yesterday, with positive results. Loi’s feeling with the front improved, increasing his confidence in the fast corners, but he simply ran out of time today.
Tito Rabat // Pole Position // 1’52.718
“I’m happy because we’ve done a good job this weekend and it’s always a little easier starting a race from pole position. But we still have work to do, first in warm up and then in the race. We’ve made good practices before, only for me to be unhappy with the race result, especially the last two races, so tomorrow is very important. I will try to win tomorrow, like always, but it will be a tough fight once again, I’m sure.”
Mika Kallio // 11th // 1’53.331
“All weekend we’ve struggled to find a compromise with the set up. Yesterday the bike was too comfortable and too slow to change direction, so we went for a more reactive set up today. While this improved the agility of the bike, it also lost us some feeling with the front, which meant it was difficult to push for a fast qualifying time. In the last two races I’ve felt in control pushing that little bit over the limit needed for a qualifying lap, but today was different. Instead of feeling in control of the bike, it felt like I was only able to react to what the bike did. It also felt like I was close to crashing, which is never good for your confidence! We have a few things to try in warm up tomorrow, which we hope will improve things for the race.”
Livio Loi // 28th // 1’59.413
“We had no choice but to make big changes for today and, thankfully, it worked. We didn’t get an instant improvement, but the fact that the feedback from the front we were missing yesterday had returned today meant at least we had a good base from which to work. When the feedback is there you can properly assess changes, which is exactly what we did. We started to improve the bike bit by bit, but then we simply ran out of time. I’m confident we can make further improvements ahead of warm up tomorrow, but that’s not going to make starting from 28th on the grid any easier. Tomorrow in the race, the beast needs to come out!”
Michael Bartholemy // Team Principal
“Apart from yesterday’s wet session, Tito has pretty much dominated all weekend. After losing out to his teammate the last two races, and seeing his championship lead reduced significantly, I am sure he’ll be going all out for the win tomorrow. Mika has struggled to find a good compromise with the set up, but starting from the fourth row of the grid is nothing new for him and he’ll be strong in the race, of that I’m sure. As for Livio, desperate times call for desperate measures, and the changes we made to his bike for today couldn’t have been more extreme. It worked, and his feeling with the front is better, but he still has a mountain to climb in the race. If he can find further improvements in warm up then his goal will be a points scoring finish tomorrow.”
More, from a press release issued by AirAsia Caterham Moto2 Team:
Mugello Grand Prix Moto2 Qualifying
Circuit: Mugello
Circuit Length: 5.245 m
Bike # 5 – Johann Zarco
FP3: P12; 1’53.666 – 18 laps
Qualifying: P12; 1’53.353 – 16 laps
Bike # 2 – Josh Herrin
FP3: P29; 1’55.033 – 15 laps
Qualifying: P26; 1’54.954 – 19 laps
Weather
FP3: (Conditions) Dry; (air temp) 20°, (track temp) 30°
Qualifying: (Conditions) Dry; (air temp) 23°, (track temp) 43°
As the chequered flag ended qualifying at Mugello, the AirAsia Caterham Moto Racing Team finished the day having gathered valuable data and a positive direction for Sunday’s race.
Having made a number of changes to the #5 bike Johann Zarco was able to improve his time during qualifying with a 1’53.666 but not his position, placing him on row four for tomorrow’s race.
Concentrating on getting into a rhythm on the #2 Caterham Suter, teammate Josh Herrin pushed to pick up his pace. Despite being unable to reach his target of breaking into the top twenty, the young American achieved his quickest time in the final session qualifying in P26.
#5 Johann Zarco:
“It’s been a difficult day. In the dry conditions we are not able to be in the top three at the moment and for sure sixth tenths from P1 is not a lot, but I am fighting to do this. We need to try and find something to improve the pace.
“I’m disappointed for today but this won’t affect me tomorrow. I’m better now at the start so I will try to be aggressive at the beginning of the race and push to catch the leaders.
“It looks like it will be difficult for most of the riders to keep the pace from qualifying consistently. There is only Tito Rabat so far who is the most constant.
“We can still aim for the podium and I won’t give up. I trust in my team, the technical support and my chief mechanic, so I know we will find a solution and the good feeling that I had on the bike at the beginning of the season.”
#2 Josh Herrin:
“Position wise it isn’t great but we’ve made some good progress throughout the sessions. Although we’re still not where we want to be it’s our best qualifying result so far, which means we’re moving in the right direction.
“At the end of the session I felt a lot more confident on the bike and that I could begin to push more, so I know I have more to give.
“There is still room to improve the bike and we’re going to try a couple of things in the morning so hopefully we can find a good race set-up and I can get a good start.”
Team Manager – Johan Stigefelt:
“At the moment we are struggling a little bit too much.
“For here we had some new parts to try which haven’t really helped us in the way that we had hoped for, but we have continued to work on this and were able to improve the set-up quite a lot in the rain yesterday. This was good for us as we could see that we were competitive in difficult conditions. We were able to transfer some of the settings into the dry sessions as well. This improved both bikes but it is still not good enough.
“Johann is only 0.635s off the leader but we know that in the races the times are more spread out, so the qualifying pace doesn’t mean that much.
“The most important thing for tomorrow is for both riders to get a good start and be able to push for the points. I hope that Johann can fight for a position in the top ten and for Josh it would be great to see him finish within the top fifteen.”
More, from a press release issued by QMMF Racing Team:
West struggles in qualifying – Ramos continues to learn
QMMF Racing Team riders Anthony West and Roman Ramos had a tough day at the Italian Grand Prix, finishing the crucial qualifying session in 29th and 33rd position. After a strong opening day of practice, where West seemed to be in control in all different weather and track conditions, the 32-year-old Australian didn’t find back to his rhythm when it counted on Saturday afternoon. Unable to improve on his best time from Friday morning, West struggled in the hectic of the qualifying battle and will now face the race with the monumental task of recovering from the tenth row of the grid.
Team-mate Roman Ramos had also expected more from his second day on the challenging Mugello track. The 33-year-old Spaniard managed to improve by almost a second in comparison to Friday, but the additional speed was not enough to reward him with a better grid position. Ramos still confronts the race with his unshakably positive attitude, trying to learn as much as possible and to turn the weekend into a positive experience.
Anthony West – 29th in 1.55,093
“We started reasonably well yesterday and I was hoping to be able to continue this way today. But somehow I didn’t find my rhythm in qualifying and I simply didn’t ride well. I tried to follow other riders, but I couldn’t stay with them and my lap time was slow. A lot of the other guys are usually slower than me and I should have qualified in front of them. I’m sorry for the guys in the team who worked hard to give me the best possible set-up. I can’t blame the bike, it’s up to me to make changes to my way of riding. I will do my best in the race tomorrow and then try to approach the next races with a new mindset!”
Roman Ramos – 33rd in 1.56,240
“We tried to continue in our line of work today, but we somehow lost direction. Mugello is a big challenge both in terms of riding and finding the right set-up for the bike. It will be interesting to see what we can achieve during the tests here after the Grand Prix, but we obviously didn’t have enough time to solve all our problems and to make a significant improvement for the race. We will try some more things in the warm-up tomorrow in order to make riding as easy as possible. I hope to be able to do a good race and finish the weekend with a positive experience!”