Rico Salmela was his usual calm and rapid self on the KTM, claiming the fastest Red Bull MotoGP Rookies Qualifying lap in Spielberg ahead of Max Quiles and Angel Piqueras.
The 15-year-old Finn was in superb form, looking for his first victory of the season and a run at 2nd place in the Cup. Quiles, the 15-year-old Spaniard also has his sights set on a win and the place in the points table behind Cup winner and fellow countryman Piqueras.
Track conditions changed several times through the day, dry for FP1, wet for FP2 and while Qualifying started dry it started to rain after the first 5 laps.
Salmela not saying
“After the rain in FP2, the track was still a little bit slippery. I had taken it easy in the rain because we knew that the track would dry for Quali. It did but there were a few corners where the track was still a bit dirty and you had to be a bit careful.”
“You couldn’t push in all the corners but I was still really happy with the session. The bike was really good, I didn’t change it a lot from FP1, just softened the front a little, kept the sprocket the same.”
“I go with the bike the way it is and I think it will be good,” he concluded. So will you be able to break away from the group? “Better I say nothing, we’ll see”, he responded with his classic grin.
Quiles not perfect but it doesn’t matter
“I was fast but I could have been faster. The track wasn’t perfect but that’s OK, the bike is good and we could have had pole position but then it started to rain and I didn’t have the chance to do it.”
“I think it will be a great race, better if it is not a huge group at the front like it is many times. I prefer a race where we are just 3 or 4 at the front but we will see. I am looking forward to it, I am confident.”
Piqueras ready to win again
“The track was so so, a bit dirty in places so I am happy with the lap time, happy to be on the front row,” stated the 16-year-old Spaniard who has already won 7 races this year and is likely to write new records before the end of the season. “There are a lot of straights here, not easy to break away but we’ll see. Maximo and Rico are very strong so it could be a big battle.”
“The bike is good, I’m very happy with it, I enjoy riding it, I also like the track, I liked it last year,” explained the 2023 Cup winner who took his 2nd Cup victory in Race 1 here last season on his way to 4th in the title chase.
Álvaro Carpe heads row 2
“I’m really happy with that because I was riding alone all the session and I rode really fast,” enthused the 16-year-old Spaniard. “It makes me confident and I am going to give it 100% tomorrow.”
“The bike is the best it has been in all the race weekends this year so I am very pleased about that.”
“I am feeling good for the race but I don’t know how it will go. I have been in a lot of Rookies races, I have watched a lot of the races here from past years and it can go any way.”
Ruche Moodley 5th with an early lap
“The track condition wasn’t perfect, we did five laps before it started to rain,” explained the 16-year-old South African. “Luckily I did the fast laps in the beginning. I spoke with my father before about and we knew that it was likely to rain.”
“The bike set-up is good but tomorrow I have a lot of work to do, I have two long lap penalties to do, that will not be easy, I did it in Assen and still got back so I know it is possible. I did a few runs through the long lap in practice so we’ll see.”
Jacob Roulstone a touch frustrated with 6th
“I’m quite happy and yet a little bit disappointed because when the rain came it really wasn’t too much and I wanted to press on but I kept catching people going slowly on the racing line so I couldn’t improve my lap, they were just not considerate,” explained the 18-year-old Australian.
“Still, 6th is not too bad, good starting position for 2 races. The bike is really good, a decent set-up.”
“I think we could have a breakaway group of about 5, hopefully with me in it. I don’t think it will be a huge group because there isn’t the long slipstream run up to turn 2
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