For the ARA RookiesCup QP session
More, from the Red Bull MotoGP Rookies Cup press release:
Carpe is the man – another pillar of the Rockies in Aragon
While points leader Alvaro Carpe finished free practice 2 seconds faster than anyone else, the 25 other KTM riders in the Red Bull MotoGP Rookies Cup knew what they were up against. The 17-year-old, who scored two wins in Austria two weeks ago, was on his own in Qualifying. He was still 0.238s faster than 16-year-old Brian Uriart in P2 with Màximo Quiles on the front row.
With only 4 races left in the season, they stand the same on the points table. The second row of the grid was occupied by their closest competitor for the title, 16-year-old Valentin Perrone of Argentina, in sixth place.
Carpet is cool and ready to put one hand on the trophy.
“My feeling with the bike was perfect. I made a small front suspension change from FP2 to qualifying which helped. I’m so glad I did my solo time, it’s hard to do that here, without the slick flow at the back. It was also windy and that affected things on the steep side, it was difficult to manage.
“I was pushing on my own, I knew I had a really good pace and I could do it on my own. In FP2 I switched from a long gear to a shorter sprocket and used that for qualifying. I’m still thinking about which one I’ll use for the race.
“In the second half of the season I feel like I’ve improved a lot, I’m training very hard. I started the year thinking not to take too many chances, not to crash, not to push the limit too much. But now I’ve found another way, it worked in Austria and I’ll continue like that, fast in FP1, FP2 and Qualifying .
Uriarte wants to regain the points lead before Austria
“Today I struggled a lot in free practice on the new asphalt,” said the Spaniard. Also, I was doing some testing 2 days ago with a Moto3 bike that felt very different from this bike. This morning was a huge step up to the rookies bike and also on the new tarmac which I felt zero to swap. I was so lost in the first session.
“FP2 was a little bit better and in this session, I used the Ricoh as a reference and it helped me a lot. I got a good pace but I think there are still places to improve in the race. I have to think where I can improve, maybe a little change on the bike but nothing major.
Quills feels more to come.
“The first row is good,” said the Spaniard. I think I could have done a better job at Quali because I was pushing, but no one seemed to want to push with me. So I pushed, I did my best but the track had no grip, the tires were slipping so early I felt I couldn’t push after the first few laps.
“However, I’m happy and I’m looking forward to the race. I think the new asphalt will cause a lot of fatigue and the last lap will be difficult, maybe bend and gas.
Proronus pushes from the beginning
“P6 isn’t too bad, that’s good in the second row. I’m happy with the bike, it’s giving me a good feeling, but the track is a bit slippery, a bit strange.
“Tomorrow I will try to get a good start so that I can be second or third at the start. I don’t want Carpe to get away. If I can do that, I will try to stay calm in the race, be smart and do good things in the last lap.”
Distribution
This weekend’s Rookies Cup race will be shown live on www.redbull.tv and on TV channels around the world.
Race 1 is on Saturday at 16:10 CET and Race 2 is on Sunday at 08:45 with the show starting 10 minutes before the race.