From FP1, Fabio Quartararo quickly adapted to the demanding Circuit of the Americas in the premier class, the scene of his first Grand Prix podium, in Moto3.
The Frenchman finished seventh in the first session, stopping the clock with a 2'06.332 which placed him 7th in the MotoGP hierarchy and ahead of his more experienced teammate.
A few hours later, the track conditions improved considerably and the Petronas Yamaha SRT team rider was able to reduce his time, but above all maintain a very important place in the top 10 given the poor weather forecast for Saturday morning.
Fabio Quartararo thus achieved a time of 2'04.589 synonymous with 9th provisional position, 0,732 seconds behind the pole man Maverick Vinales.
The youngest member of the field once again remains the best rookie, but this time he is closely followed by Francis Bagnaia, à seulement 0,041 seconde, qui avoue lui-même avoir trouvé “un truc” pour passer les bosses…
fabio quartararo : “it was a positive day. The goal was to stay in the top 10 today and we managed to finish 9th, so I'm very satisfied. I made a few mistakes on my two fastest laps, so I'm pretty happy because we only had one tire to do our timed lap. So it's very good to finish in the Top 10 on the first day here in Austin. It's a very difficult circuit. When you enter the first sector, it is not easy and I think it is the most physical sector. This circuit is very physical, but I felt good on the bike. I think it's one of the most demanding circuits of the year and we know it's a good test of our fitness, although I think we're in pretty good shape. We'll see in the race, but it's a difficult circuit. But I'm happy. I managed to get into a good rhythm and work on our weak points from the first session. I'm really looking forward to tomorrow. We're not officially in Q2 yet, but today the most important thing was to finish in the Top 10 because we know it's probably going to rain tomorrow.”
MotoGP Grand Prix of the Americas standings in Austin FP2:
Quartararo, Grand Prix Of The Americas, 2019
Classification credit: MotoGP.com
