Rico Salmela sits in pole position for the Red Bull MotoGP Rookies Cup home races in Austria. Alongside the 16-year-old Finn, second fastest, is 17-year-old Alvaro Carpe. Fellow Spaniard, 16-year-old Màximo Quiles completes the Spielberg front row.
Cup points leader Brian Uriarte has work to do, starting from Row 3 after qualifying 9th.
KTM’s home track is a favourite of Salmela
“That was good, so from P2 I rode all the sessions alone. Because I crashed in FP1 and I didn’t get many laps so I went alone to get the feeling. This track has always been good for me, and I got a decent pace in Quali. I didn’t get the slipstream but I had riders in front, I could see them and chase them.”
“So the times were good, one lap on 44 zero and many laps around 44.4. The bike feels really good and I feel really good for tomorrow. Thanks to everyone.”
Carpe impressed with Salmela and himself
“I’m really happy, all day I was pushing, finding the limit. I found it in Qualifying. It was a fast session, Rico did an amazing lap and for me to be 0.1 from that is not so bad. It was a good day because my feeling with the KTM was improving session by session and we changed my sprocket in F2 to find the best gearing and I am very happy to be starting in the front row after two poles in the last two races.”
“I like this track, last year I won my first Rookie race here, I led all the laps. In Race 2 I was also leading and finished second. It’s a very special circuit for me.”
Quiles found the limit
“I made a good job I think. I have a good feeling after the summer break. I have a great feeling with the bike. In Quali, when I started pushing really hard I got quite a lot of chatter, I was going for the pole on the last lap I was so crazy in Turn 9 that the front tyre closed and I went off almost into the gravel.”
“This is racing and now I know the limit of the bike,” he laughed. “I will talk to Aitor (Lafoz, suspension engineer) and see if we should change something for the race. It was only a real problem late on when the tyres were worn.”
Veda Pratama chased hard to take 4th
“It’s not an easy circuit to learn but step by step I am getting there,” explained the 15-year-old Indonesian. “I lost a lot of laps in FP1 because I crashed at the beginning of the session. So in FP2 I had to find the good lines and managed to work it out. So then in Qualifying I found some good guys to follow and managed a good lap time so I am happy with the result today.”
“The bike is good, not perfect so I think that for Race 1 we will try a change to the rear suspension and see if that helps.”
Valentin Perrone will go for it
“Not so bad, P5 I think,” enthused the Argentine 16-year-old. “Good for tomorrow, starting in the front. I have good pace, I’m happy about that and tomorrow I will try to push like crazy to try and break the group and we’ll see if I can manage that.”
“I like the track, I am comfortable with the bike so very much looking forward to the race. It’s my first time here and tricky to learn, up and down, difficult corners but I think I have it learnt not so bad so let’s race.”
Marco Morelli got there in the end
“Not so bad, I think we finished the day well after putting in a bit of work,” explained the 17-year-old Argentine. “In the morning it was a bit difficult and also in FP2 I was not so confident with the bike. But we made a little change on the rear suspension and that helped, I made a step forward and I am happy to be on the second row. A good improvement over last year and I am closer to the front. I’ll try to stay in the front group and see what I can do in the last laps.”
Born Racers is where the Rookies Cup gets real
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