ROAD RACING: Bezzecchi attacks from seventh row in Argentina

In an incredible exciting Qualifying at the Termas de Rio Hondo circuit, Red Bull KTM Tech3’s Marco Bezzecchi missed out on his first ever Q2 by just 0.261 seconds. Following some huge steps from FP1 on Friday morning to the all-important session this afternoon, the Italian Moto2 rookie lowered his lap time by more than 2.5 seconds and is set to start his second intermediate class race from P21.

Meanwhile, Philipp Öttl was able to improve by 1.5 seconds from FP1 to FP3, but found it hard to get into the right rhythm in order to arrive closer to the front during Qualifying. The German Moto2 newcomer will have to start the second round amongst the ultra-competitive field at 13.20 local time (18.20 CET) from the 10^th row of the grid.

Marco Bezzecchi

Position: 7^th
Time: 1:43.619
Laps: 8

“The Qualifying went quite good. Honestly, I wanted to make it to Q2, but my lap time was just not good enough. Anyway, I made a very big step compared to this morning and with regards to yesterday even bigger, so for this I’m happy. I’m also consistent when riding alone. I still have to improve some things on the bike and some things on my riding, but we are finding a way, which is great news. Tomorrow in Warm Up we will try some small changes on the bike and then we are ready to race. I hope my leg will be fine.”

Philipp Öttl

Position: 16^th
Time: 1:44.825
Laps: 8

“During this Qualifying session, I didn’t find a good rhythm. I tried a few things on my riding style, but we need to work quicker in the Free Practice sessions, especially on my side to improve quicker in order to have it right there in Qualifying and not trying something in this important session, as there you have to focus on what you have and try to get the best out of it. But at the moment, I’m trying and working a lot in each single session and I couldn’t find a straight line to build on. We have to focus on the data now and see what we can do in Warm Up tomorrow morning.”