Honda’s Foggia Will Start Barcelona Race From Pole
Circuit de Barcelona-CatalunyaMoto3 World Championship challenger Dennis Foggia (Leopard Racing Honda NSF250RW) claimed a convincing pole position in today’s stifling Catalan heat, as he bids to bounce back from an unfortunate crash at Mugello last weekend.
Prior to this year’s French GP the 21-year-old had never managed to score a pole position in 78 grand prix starts. Now he has achieved two poles in the last three rounds!
Foggia, who sits fourth in the championship, 42 points behind the leader, showed excellent rhythm throughout free practice, especially yesterday afternoon when he was faster than anyone on the harder option rear tyre. The seven-times race winner will start as a pre-race favourite, after finishing inside the top three in every session so far.
It was an excellent day for the SIC 58 Squadra Corse team as Lorenzo Fellon (SIC58 Squadra Corse Honda NSF250RW) and Riccardo Rossi (SIC58 Squadra Corse Honda NSF250RW) qualified on the second row. Fellon was nudged off the provisional front row in the final seconds of qualifying, but will start from fourth, the second-best qualifying performance of his career and his best in the dry.
Rossi comes to the ninth round of the season on a high： he posted one of the best performances of his short career last weekend at Mugello, finishing sixth and being inside the victory fight throughout. He has carried that confidence here this weekend and should be contending for the podium positions.
The brilliant NSF250RW has a brilliant record at Barcelona-Catalunya, with seven wins from the ten Moto3 races here.
Grand Prix rookie Mario Suryo Aji (Honda Team Asia Honda NSF250RW) has good experience at this track： he tested here last month at a private test. That experience helped the Indonesian to score 19th on Saturday afternoon, his best qualifying performance in fully dry conditions this year. Aji is confident of posting his third point-scoring finish of the season tomorrow.
Team-mate and fellow rookie Taiyo Furusato (Honda Team Asia Honda NSF250RW) also benefited from the private test at this track a month ago. The 16-year-old is a fan of riding in high-temperatures and low grip conditions and feels this could work to his advantage in tomorrow’s 21-lap race, when he will be eager to improve on his personal best result to date of 16th.
After an intense start to the season, Moto3 teams and riders have a free weekend after Barcelona before returning with back-to-back races at the German and Dutch GPs on June 19 and June 26.
This is my second pole position and it's an amazing feeling. We've been fast throughout the whole weekend and pole is just the confirmation. I can't wait to race tomorrow and fight for the victory.
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I feel alright with the bike. It's a shame that I missed getting into Q2 by just one tenth of a second. Usually, I'm far from the pace during free practice but in the race I'm faster. For me, the most important thing will be to stay in the front group, not losing too much time at the start, although it's challenging to keep your position in Turn One.
Today I improved a lot in my riding in many corners. In Q1 I did my best lap time, riding alone. This is something very positive in these hot conditions. I learn from riding with a group but I continue making some mistakes. For tomorrow's race, I know I should push on the first two laps, trying to follow the group.
