Tom Lüthi (4th) optimistic in Mugello
After the first day of free practice during which Thomas Lüthi (carXpert Interwetten) and his technical team explored different directions, he was able to make an important step forward this Saturday, finishing in fourth position in the qualifying practice (second row) for the Italian Grand Prix. On top of that Lüthi marked his lap time without the help of slipstream of another rider and was able to repeat it several times. Second in the provisional Moto2 World Championship classification, the Swiss rider can be optimistic ahead of tomorrow’s race on this superb circuit of Mugello (start at 12:20 pm CET). Another great performance of the day for the team managed by Fred Corminboeuf goes to Danny Kent, the British rider replacing Spaniard Iker Lecuona in the Garage Plus Interwetten colours. Kent, who has not ridden a Kalex machine since the end of last year’s championship, will start from the fourth row of the grid (12th position). The day was also positive for Jesko Raffin from Zurich (Garage Plus Interwetten), who was able to reduce the gap between himself and the pole man by half a second compared to Friday. The boss Fred Corminboeuf sums up this hot day: “It was a very productive day for us. We made the right decisions in terms of our technical plan and as always Tom did his job on track. He did his fastest lap times riding alone; he has a really good pace, which is not the case for all the riders. The race looks promising tomorrow. Danny Kent increased his pace as he got to understand the Kalex better. What he has shown so far is very interesting. Unfortunately he had to cut his last run short due to a small issue. Nothing serious but his session was over. Jesko has shown positive improvements today, although a bit too late. The end of his session is what we want to remember from this qualifying session.”
He said…
Thomas Lüthi (carXpert Interwetten, 4th):
"We did a really good job today. On the first lap of the qualifying session I knew already that we had found the right direction. I gained half a second almost immediately, the feeling was incredible, I felt really good out there. I only had one small problem during my second run in the afternoon when I nearly crashed in slow corners on two occasions. I am not sure what it was, maybe a defective front tyre. I returned to the box straight away and we put a new tyre that allowed me to go faster. We still need three tenths but I did my best lap times without slipstream, which is important for the race tomorrow.”
Mugello (Italy). GP of Italy, Moto2, Qualification: 1. Morbidelli (ITA, Kalex), 1’51.679 (169.000 km/h); 2. A. Marquez (SPA, Kalex), + 0.036; 3. Pasini (ITA, Kalex), + 0.079; 4. Lüthi (SWI, Kalex, carXpert Interwetten), + 0.366; 5. Nakagami (JPN, Kalex), + 0.494; 6. Marini (ITA, Kalex), + 0.613; 7. Navarro (SPA, Kalex), + 0.710; 8. Baldassari (ITA, Kalex), + 0.748; 9. Oliveira (POR, KTM), + 0.810; 10. Corsi (ITA, Speed Up), + 0.900. Further: 12. Kent (GBR, Kalex, Garage Plus Interwetten), + 0.996; 18. Aegerter (SWI, Suter), + 1.257; 26. Raffin (SWI, Kalex, Garage Plus Interwetten), + 1.780. 33 classified.
