Three thrilling sessions opened the Red Bull MotoGP Rookies Cup season. Malaysian 17-year-old Hakim Danish took pole after stamping his authority on Qualifying at the end of the day, 0.446 seconds quicker than Spaniard Brian Uriarte.
Carter Thompson had topped the first Free Practice session and Veda Pratama the second but both fell, unhurt, in Qualifying, destroying any chances of fighting for the top positions.
Danish 1st in Qualifying
“I am very happy to have pole position for the first race of the season. I feel comfortable with the bike and I think I did a good job in all three sessions, both old tyres and new so I’m confident for tomorrow. I just need to keep focused and I think tomorrow we’ll have fun, a fun race.”
Uriarte 2nd in Qualifying
“I was seeing how the bike was again because I was coming from the factory bike and it’s quite different. I have got the feeling back but I think we can improve something. I will talk to my helpers to see what we can improve. But it’s close, on the exit of the corner, I have some movements, strange movements. and I saw the others don’t have the same so maybe we can improve this. In Qualifying I made some mistakes so there is also something more to come from me.”
Leo Rammerstorfer P3 in Qualifying
The 20-year-old Austrian has got the measure of the KTM in his third Rookies season. “Yeah, I felt better session by session today, in fact, it’s the way things have been going all winter. In my training, I have felt quicker every time I got on a bike, every kind of bike. This morning I didn’t think I would be on the front row but I was confident I could do a good job. We tried a couple of things in FP2 that didn’t work and now I think the bike is great and I can’t wait to race it.”
Giulio Pugliese an excellent 4th in Qualifying
“I feel very good about that,” smiled the 16-year-old Italian. “Happy with the time, confident in the bike. Earlier in the day, I had some chattering on the brakes but the guys sorted that out very well. That really helped my confidence and getting the best out of the KTM, so I am looking forward to tomorrow.”
Carter Thompson recovers from early fall in Qualifying to 9th
“Definitely not the way I wanted to do that session,” admitted the 17-year-old Australian. “Just a small mistake but I lost the front. Apart from that it was a good day, I felt like I had good speed. After they checked over the bike and I went back out there, there were a few yellow flags so I really only had one opportunity to do the lap time. I feel like I have more speed and tomorrow should be a good day.
Veda Pratama 15th after missing the end of Qualifying
“Qualifying was difficult, a lot of riders trying to go fast, trying to follow,” explained the 16-year-old Indonesian. “I was trying to follow, I was waiting for the right space, then I pushed but made a little mistake. So that was not good. I have to think about what I will do on the settings for tomorrow, analyse things, talk about it, look back at last year, use that experience.”
Broadcast
This weekend’s Rookies Cup races can be seen live on www.redbull.tv and on TV stations around the world.
Race 1 is at 16:10 CET on Saturday and Race 2 is on Sunday at 08:45, the show starts 10 minutes before the race.
For more info checkout our dedicated Red Bull MotoGP Rookies Cup News page Rookies Cup News
Or visit the official Red Bull MotoGP Rookies Cup website rookiescup.redbull.com/
