The second day of action on the newly resurfaced and redesigned Montmelo Circuit saw temperatures climbing and lap times dropping.
For the majority of the morning’s FP3 session, Friday’s times stood. With less than 10 minutes left on the clock a few riders were able to improve, but it was difficult for those due to be in Q1 to make up the difference and elevate themselves directly into Q2. Alex Rins improved his time by four tenths with moments left in the session, but missed out on the Top 10.
FP4 was hot and hectic ahead of qualifying. Alex Rins, forced to try to fight through from Q1, found some struggles at his home circuit. Although he went 3rd at one point, he was unfortunately unable to progress through to Q2, he will take 15th slot on the grid tomorrow. Sylvain Guintoli, appearing for the first time this season as a Wild Card, will start 25th.
The track temperatures soared to 38c for Q2 and the 15-minute session saw plenty of action.
Alex Rins:
“It’s been a difficult weekend for me, definitely not easy in the heat with the fast corners and we’re missing out a bit there like we did in the test. So we’re working on that, but we still need to find a bit more for the race. The difference between Andrea and me is in the last two corners, the fast ones, so I need to find more. The tyre allocation is a bit difficult also, but I look forward to the race tomorrow.”
