When points leader Alvaro Carpe completed Free Practice 2 half a second quicker than anyone else, the 25 other KTM riders in the Red Bull MotoGP Rookies Cup knew what they were up against.
The 17-year-old who scored the double two weeks ago in Austria worked on his own in Qualifying. He was still 0.238 seconds quicker than 16-year-old Brian Uriarte in P2 with Màximo Quiles, also 16, completing the front row.
That is the same order that they stand in the points table with just 4 races remaining in the season. The second row of the grid features their closest challenger for the Cup, Argentine 16-year-old Valentin Perrone who qualified sixth.
Carpe cool and ready to place one hand on the Cup
“My feeling with the bike was perfect. I made a small front suspension change from FP2 to Qualifying which helped. I’m really happy because I did my time alone, here it is really difficult to do that, without the slipstream in the back straight. It was also windy and that also affected things in the uphill section, it was difficult to manage.”
“I was pushing alone, I know that I have a very good pace and I can do it alone. In FP2 I changed from the long gearing and changed to the shorter sprocket and used that for the Qualifying. I am still thinking which I will use for the race.”
“I feel I have improved quite a lot in the second half of the season,I have been training very hard. I started the year thinking about not taking too many chances, to not crash, not to push the limit too much. But now I have found another way, it worked in Austria and I am going to carry on like that, fastest in FP1, FP2 and Qualifying.”
Uriarte keen to regain the points lead he had before Austria
“Today I struggled a lot in Free Practice on the new asphalt,” admitted the Spaniard. Also, I was making some tests 2 days ago with a Moto3 bike that I felt was very different to this bike. It was a super big step to swap back to the Rookies bike this morning and also with the new asphalt I just had zero feeling. In the first session, I was super lost.”
“FP2 was quite a bit better and in this session, I used Rico as a reference and it helped me a lot. I found a nice pace but I think that there are still places to improve in the race. I have to think about where I can improve, perhaps a small change to the bike but nothing major.”
Quiles feels there is more to come
“The first row is nice,” enthused the Spaniard. I think in Quali I could do a better job because I was pushing but no one seemed to want to push with me. So I pushed, I did my best but the track lacks grip, the tyres slide really early so after the first few laps I felt that I couldn’t push.”
“I am happy though and looking forward to the race. I think the new asphalt causes a lot of wear and the last laps will be difficult, maybe turn and gas it.”
Perrone will push from the start
“P6 is not so bad, on the second row so that’s good. I am happy with the bike, it’s giving me a good feeling but the track is a bit slippery, a bit strange.”
“Tomorrow I will try to make a good start so that I can be second or third in the beginning. I don’t want Carpe to be able to get away. If I can do that then I will try to be calm through the race, be smart and do good things in the finals laps.”
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