Fermín Aldeguer was a little apprehensive about this Portuguese Grand Prix, but he finally managed to go straight into Q2.
Fermín Aldeguer He arrived at one of the most impressive circuits on the calendar with some apprehension. It must be said that the weather forecast wasn't exactly optimistic and that the Portimão track is extremely demanding. Even though the best rookie of the year secured his first victory in his young career in Indonesia a month ago, he remains a newcomer who has never ridden a MotoGP bike on the Portuguese circuit.
Furthermore, he did not experience the success he had hoped for after his victory, and found himself in difficulty during the following two GPs. Despite good qualifying performances in seventh and sixth places, as well as a podium finish in the sprint race in Malaysia (which was later taken away due to low tire pressure), Aldeguer made two mistakes, in addition to having finished the Australian GP in 14th place.
His results were inevitably below his expectations, but they are part of the learning process. And, despite his concerns about the Portuguese Grand Prix, he took to the track on Friday with the goal of finishing in the top ten to secure his automatic place in Q2.
The objective was achieved in both sessions, as he finished tenth in FP1 this morning before improving his time by 1.3 seconds to secure eighth place overall for the day after this afternoon's practice session. This gives him hope for another good qualifying result tomorrow, although he acknowledges that his race pace should be better.
“We achieved our goal of reaching Q2 with excellent sensations right from the start. I was a bit nervous yesterday thinking about this circuit and the risk of rain. But I adapted to the track quite well and found my rhythm with the bike. We probably even have better race pace compared to the time attack, but we can also improve on that point tomorrow.”, he said during his debriefing.
Results of the Portuguese Grand Prix Practice :
Classification credit: MotoGP.com
