The San Marino Grand Prix started off in hot conditions today and very well for Raul Fernandez, who managed to secure his first direct Q2 entry in the timed Practice today. This result already guarantees him the best starting position so far with the CryptoDATA RNF MotoGP Team as he will definitively be in the first four rows. Meanwhile, Miguel Oliveira struggled on Friday to find a good feeling.
Fernandez started the day with the fifth fastest time in the first Free Practice this morning, feeling at ease straight away. In this afternoon’s session temperatures rised even further, yet he managed to improve his lap time from the morning session by 0.691 seconds. Even a small crash in the final three minutes couldn’t stop him, so he got his best Friday result to date.
“Honestly, I’m really happy because we were always close to going into Q2 directly, and today we managed to get it. But it was still difficult. I did the first run with new tyres and then I saw the yellow flag again and we needed to close the gas. On the second try, I arrived on the last part of the third sector and saw that everyone was in the middle, I tried not to lose a lot of time but unfortunately I crashed.”
“ In the end, I’m happy, I had a good pace all day and that is really important for tomorrow. Getting that Q2 is positive for the mind and for the work we have to do tomorrow during FP3. My team and I have been working really well in the last three, four races, we just needed to improve on the fast lap and the lap with new tyre, and today we improved on that. In the end I think the pace is there and that’s a good thing.”