A bitter weekend in Qatar, but with signs of confidence.

Friday, March 8th - Practices

We have finally reached the first race weekend for the Qatar Grand Prix, at the Losail Circuit.
Friday was characterized by a free practice session where the riders began to gain confidence with the track, continuing to gather data to work on for the upcoming sessions.
Unfortunately, the second session of the weekend proved decisive for David Almansa's weekend; a crash at the beginning of the session resulted in a triple fracture to his left hand, preventing him from continuing the weekend on track.
On the other side of the garage, Matteo secured a confident third place heading into Saturday with promising data.

Matteo started to get a feel for the new tire suppliers, commenting: "There's still some work to do, today I tried the soft tires but then I felt better when I switched to the medium tires."

Saturday, March 9th - Practices and Qualifying

Due to rain that arrived after Friday's sessions, on Saturday, the riders found a dirty and less rubbered track, making it impossible to improve their times from the previous day.
Despite this, Matteo's confidence remains high due to a strong qualifying performance; with an excellent lap, Matteo manages to secure a great fifth position ahead of the Grand Prix.

Sunday, March 10th - Race

Matteo then starts from the second row, with some doubts about the feeling of the tires but confident in his choice.

The start of the Grand Prix is characterized by chaos, a chaos that penalizes Matteo's first lap due to a violent push that pushes him wide at the exit of the first corner.
Despite everything, he manages to maintain a good pace, staying in the group between the 10th and 15th position, fighting.

Unfortunately, on the 6th lap out of 16, the rider ahead of him suffers a violent crash; Matteo cannot do anything to avoid it and is involved, without consequences, in an incident that ends the Qatar weekend for him.

The weekend therefore ends with non-positive results, but the complete analysis of the weekend and the data brought home by the riders manages to give a lot of hope and confidence.

Team Comments

Friday, Mirko Cecchini talks about the tires: "There is still a big question mark regarding the Pirelli tires. In Qatar, the circuit is quite abrasive, but perhaps the track favors the Honda. The initial data looks positive."

David speaks about his injury: "I am very sorry because we were doing a great job, and I had a good feeling with the bike; I felt fast. I will have surgery on my hand on Tuesday, and I will try to come back as strong as possible!"

Despite the crash during the race, Matteo does not lose confidence: "I felt good in the race; I'm sorry. Now I'm thinking about Portugal with the desire to improve compared to the pre-season tests."