Niccolo Antonelli continued to make progress with his adaptation to the Estoril circuit and the FTR chassis today, qualifying on the fourth row of the grid for tomorrow’s Portuguese Grand Prix. The Italian found a good set-up for his bike which will be crucial for the race, when a few further tweaks should see him able to fight for a top result.
Niccolo Antonelli (12° 1’ 48” 696)
“It hasn’t been a bad day because we’ve managed to set the twelfth fastest time and qualify on the fourth row of the grid for tomorrow’s race, although I think it could have been better. We are slowly finding the best set-up for this bike and that is very positive considering that this weekend has been our first real opportunity to work on it in the dry. With limited track time available we have made a good step forward and I think we can improve it even more ahead of the race tomorrow.”
Fausto Gresini
“I am very happy with the way the session has gone today, especially considering that Estoril is a completely new circuit for Niccolò and this weekend is his first on this bike in the dry. New bike, new track and his rookie season… you have to be impressed with how Niccolò is performing. Unfortunately because of his size he has to run with a nine kilo ballast, which is a disadvantage because the other riders are carrying an extra nine kilos of muscle. Anyway, I think we can improve the bike further tomorrow which should allow him to meet our objective of a top ten finish.”
