After a nice session of qualification, Team Estrella Galicia 0,0 Marc VDS riders Franco Morbidelli and Tom Lüthi are ready to start their first MotoGP race tomorrow at the Losail international circuit.
Reigning Moto2 world champion, Morbidely will start from fourteenth position on the starting grid for the Qatar Grand Prix after achieving an impressive time of 1'55.169 in Q1 aboard his Honda RC213V.
The Italian missed the passage to Q2 by only half a second.
Despite difficult conditions, with strong gusts of wind and a lot of sand on the track, Morbidely et Lüthi did not tremble as they both continued their apprenticeship in the premier category.
Although unable to participate in all of the offseason testing sessions due to injury, Lüthi also made a strong impression by qualifying in eighteenth position.
Lüthi improved his times by around two seconds compared to his first official MotoGP outing in FP1. Even more significant, Lüthi was thirteenth in race pace in FP4.
Franco Morbidelli: 14th – 1'55.169
« My first qualifying session will remain a great memory. What a feeling, what adrenaline! I redid the times I had achieved this winter in Qatar and I am satisfied with them even if I had a little more difficulty with the bike when accelerating out of the corner. But I think the team can find solutions to fix this before tomorrow's race. I have good pace and I think I can fight to get into the points. It would be a good result for my MotoGP debut »
Tom Lüthi: 18th – 1’55.381
« My first MotoGP qualifying session was positive, particularly in terms of improving my times. It's not easy in fifteen minutes to adopt the right strategy to set a time, but the experience of my team allowed me to concentrate on my driving. I'm starting to better feel the limits of the tire on the angle, and it's a good step forward. I am continuing my learning but I feel ready for my first race in MotoGP »
Michael Bartholemy: Team Principal
« I am very happy with Franco and Tom. The result of their first qualifying session is better than we could expect from two MotoGP debutants. Franco was the fastest rookie today and even almost made it to Q2. Tom made great progress and I think he himself was surprised by his performance. I think we can leave Qatar tomorrow evening with both our drivers in the points »
