Dani Holgado and David Alonso clocked the fourth and sixth fastest times in Saturday’s qualifying session and remain confident of challenging for the top positions tomorrow
The CFMOTO Power Electronics Aspar Team battled for a front-row grid position right up until the final moments of the Moto2 qualifying. David Alonso was in the top three and even led for part of the session, but was ultimately relegated to sixth place after several riders improved on his time. His team-mate Dani Holgado also had a chance to finish in the top three, but fell six thousandths short of achieving it and will start from fourth place tomorrow. Izan Guevara will lead the starting grid at Motegi, followed by Filip Salac in second place and Manu González in third.
This morning’s free practice session was the last chance to finalise Sunday’s strategy before getting down to business and battling for the front row of the Moto2 grid. Dani Holgado and David Alonso carried over the positive form from the previous day into this afternoon’s Q2 and were two of the session’s standout performers. David Alonso was the fastest on Friday and once again topped the timesheets in his quest for his third pole position of the year. The Colombian rode alone and set a personal best of 1:47.103, finishing in sixth place after being overtaken by several of his rivals in the closing moments. Dani Holgado went from strength to strength during Q2 at Motegi. The CFMOTO Power Electronics Aspar rider set his fastest time on the penultimate lap and broke the 1:47 barrier for the first time this weekend. This time briefly put him in the top three, although he was pipped at the post on the final lap by just a few thousandths of a second and will start from fourth place tomorrow.
4th Dani Holgado 1:46.967 (+0.116): “I’m happy with the feelings after the second day. Both the team and I have done a great job taking a step forward compared to yesterday. I can only thank them, as they’ve given me a good bike. We’ve worked on our race pace all weekend to ensure we can have a good race tomorrow. We’ll give it our all to do the best job possible.”
6th David Alonso 1:47.103 (+0.252): “Today was one of my best qualifying sessions of the season. Right from the start, I set a fast lap while riding on my own. Afterwards, I maintained a good pace and kept pushing for another four or five laps. I’m starting a bit further back tomorrow, in sixth place, but I’m very happy with the work we’ve done. I’ll try to get a good start and make up positions right from the beginning. The pace will surely be incredibly high, but I’ll try to stay up at the front and fight until the very last lap.”
