Reale Avintia Academy 77 – GP of Catalunya – Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya
Reale Avintia Academy riders Livio Loi and Vicente Pérez didn’t meet their expectations in today’s qualifying session for the Catalan Grand Prix.
Livio Loi was hoping to find something that would allow him to go faster, but it was not possible and tomorrow he will start from 27th place with a best lap of 1’50.247. The Belgian rider is not 100% comfortable with the bike and he is losing time in several areas of the Barcelona-Catalunya Circuit.
The warm-up on Sunday morning will be crucial to try different settings on his KTM in order to put up a fight with the main group in the Moto3 race.
Vicente Pérez shone during FP3 this morning and finished in eighth place, and he pushed hard in qualifying trying to repeat his performance in the afternoon. But in the last few minutes of the session, he suffered a heavy crash. After a first check at the circuit clinic, he was taken to the General Hospital of Catalunya for X-rays. Doctors have ruled out any fractures, but Pérez will remain at the hospital until late this afternoon. Only tomorrow, he will decide with the team if he will participate at the Grand Prix of Catalunya.
“We tested several things on the bike to try to find a better way, but nothing worked as planned. We need to check the data tonight and see where we can improve. We are still far from the top and we need to find something to go faster and to have better feelings, because we should be much higher up. If the feeling remains as it is with the bike, the race will be tough, because we lose in many areas of the circuit. I hope to find something that allows me to fight.”
“On one hand I’m happy and on the other hand I’m really sad. In FP3 we did a great job and we found the right way. We started qualifying highly motivated, but I didn’t have the best feeling with the front. On the last lap, I was about to clock a really good time, but then another rider crashed in front of me and I couldn’t avoid him and crashed as well. I want to say thank you to my team, because they always work hard and this weekend is no exception.”
