World Championship Leader Foggia To Start From 11th
Termas de Río HondoThis weekend’s Argentine Grand Prix has been transformed into a two-day event, following the cancellation of all Friday track action, due to the late arrival of team freight from Indonesia, where the second GP of the year took place two weeks ago.
Therefore all Moto3 practice and qualifying took place today, with two 50-minute practice sessions, followed by the usual 15-minute Q1 and Q2 qualifying sessions
Among the final delivery of freight which arrived at Termas last night were the motorcycles of World Championship leader Dennis Foggia (Leopard Racing Honda NSF250RW) and Tatsuki Suzuki (Leopard Racing Honda NSF250RW). Thus it’s been a very, very long day for the Luxembourg-based team, which started preparing its machines and garage just a few hours before first practice began at 08:15.
The 21-year-old Italian and 24-year-old Japanese from Chiba were looking good for front-row starts until the final moments of this afternoon’s Q2 qualifying session when they were shuttled down the order. Suzuki will start tomorrow’s race from the third row, Foggia from row four, only 0.699 seconds behind pole position. Nevertheless, both are confident of racing at the front tomorrow.
Honda’s top qualifier today was 20-year-old Italian Riccardo Rossi (Sic 58 Squadra Corse Honda NSF250RW) in fourth, a mere 0.102 seconds off the front row.
Andrea Migno (Rivacold Snipers Team Honda NSF250RW), winner of Qatar’s opening round, qualified eighth, in the middle of row three.
Mario Suryo Aji (Honda Team Asia Honda NSF250RW) will start from the seventh row. The 18-year-old Indonesian rookie, who impressed with his first points score in his home GP at Mandalika, briefly led this afternoon’s Q1 qualifying session, missing promotion to Q2 by a fraction.
Taiyo Furusato (Honda Team Asia Honda NSF250RW) was happy to finally start his rookie season after missing the first two races of due to a right-foot injury sustained during pre-season testing.
The 16-year-old Japanese rider from Kanoya, who won every round of last year’s Honda-backed Asia Talent Cup, also got close to Q2. During his final lap in Q1 he was fastest in the first three sectors, but a slide at the penultimate corner cost him a fraction of a second and he didn’t make the cut, so he will line up 22nd.
Following tomorrow’s race the Moto3 paddock heads straight to the USA, for next weekend’s Grand Prix of the Americas at the Circuit of the Americas.
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The first impressions of the track weren't so bad. But unfortunately, I crashed, affecting my confidence. I tried in every outing to improve my lap time, fixing my riding style and making progress, even if my feeling wasn’t the best. That is a good point because we've 20 minutes more of practice tomorrow in warm-up. That will help me and the team set up the bike as well as possible. Starting from P20 will be not easy, but I will fight for a better result than in Mandalika.
I'm happy to be finally here. After the injury I have had a quick comeback, thanks to the job of a great team of doctors, physiotherapists, and trainers. Today it was possible to go faster, but I still have a little pain in my foot when riding the bike. The lap time is not so fast, but I will try to improve it tomorrow.
