Honda Riders Go for Sixth Successive Sachsenring Win
SachsenringHonda riders took the top four places in today’s Moto3 qualifying session at super-hot Sachsenring, with Filip Salac (Rivacold Snipers Team Honda NSF250RW) taking the first pole position of his Grand Prix career.
Tomorrow the 19-year-old Czech rider will share the front row with 20-year-old Italian Dennis Foggia (Leopard Racing Honda NSF250RW) and 23-year-old Japanese rider Tatsuki Suzuki (Sic58 Squadra Corse Honda NSF250RW). At the end of the 15-minute Q2 session the trio were separate by just two tenths of a second.
Fourth fastest was 26-year-old Briton John McPhee (Petronas Sprinta Racing Honda NSF250RW) who will lead the second row.
Honda’s fine-handling NSF250RW therefore has a great chance of scoring another victory at tortuous Sachsenring, where it has won the last five Moto3 races.
Also impressive was 16-year-old French rookie Lorenzo Fellon (Sic58 Squadra Corse Honda NSF250RW) who will also start from the second row after riding the sixth-fastest lap, bettering his previous best of 16th.
Yuki Kunii (Honda Team Asia Honda NSF250RW) rode well in the Q1 session to graduate to Q2, but he wasn’t able to repeat his Q1 lap time. If the 18-year-old from Setagaya had done so he would’ve qualified an excellent 12th quickest. Instead he will start from 16th. This is Kunii’s first Grand Prix at Sachsenring, though he has ridden here in the Red Bull Rookies Cup.
Andi Farid Izdihar (Honda Team Asia Honda NSF250RW) showed great speed in free practice during his first visit to Sachsenring, completing the three sessions 19th quickest, less than eight tenths of a second off the fastest times. However, qualifying didn’t go so well for the 23-year-old Indonesian, who made a few mistakes on his best laps. He will start the race from 26th.
Next weekend Moto3 riders will contest their fourth Grand Prix in five weeks at Assen, Netherlands. That event is followed by a five-week summer break. The second part of the season starts at Red Bull Ring, with back-to-back races in August.
This is another dream come true for me. I really didn’t expect pole because in FP2 yesterday, when the temperatures were the same as qualifying, I struggled, so I couldn’t find my rhythm and couldn’t go fast. In qualifying I gave my 100% from the beginning and set my fastest lap, then there were some yellow flags, so maybe I was a bit lucky with that. Anyway I am so happy with pole and having a good position for the start of the race. This year I have more experience and I’m happy the season is going well – the target is to continue in this way.
I’m very happy after today's result. Starting from the second spot will give us solid options and I will fight harder than ever to finish the race with a great result and grab important points for the Championship. Many thanks to the team, they've done an amazing job.
I’m so happy to be on the front row for the third time this season and this gives me great motivation for the race, which will be very hot and very tough for everyone. We have shown we can be very fast but we have had some bad luck, so we still don’t have a podium finish so far in 2021. That will be my aim tomorrow.
During FP3 I expected to do a better lap time, but I couldn't. That was stressful for me, to have doubts about why I wasn't fast enough. In Q1 I tried my maximum and this time everything worked well, so I went to Q2. Therefore neither the position nor the lap time were as expected. At some points of the track I’m fast but I’m still slow in some others. I need to understand why I’m struggling so much in these hot conditions. But I’m optimistic for tomorrow's race.
I made a good step ahead in FP3, more than a second and a half, but in qualifying I missed the moment, making some mistakes in my flying laps. I’m disappointed because I can do much more. For tomorrow race, we will try to find the final settings during the warmup.
