The Spaniard fights through the pain after his crash and secures a third-row start. Baltus lines up on the fourth row, Pasini in P27.
It was an intense Saturday for the Fantic Racing Lino Sonego Team at the Red Bull Ring, home of the Austrian GP. A day full of emotions, unexpected twists, and great determination from all the riders.
Aron Canet confirmed his competitiveness right from the opening sessions: second fastest in Friday’s Practice and the best time in Saturday morning’s FP2, showing very strong race pace. Unfortunately, a crash at the end of the session damaged his bike and left him with a heavy knock, especially to the head. Thanks to his determination and the hard work of the team, Aron was still able to line up for Q2. In qualifying, after a more conservative first stint, he couldn’t find the perfect lap in the final run and closed in eighth place. He will therefore start from the third row, with a clear goal: fighting for the podium in tomorrow’s race.
Barry Baltus, after some initial difficulties caused by setup changes, secured direct access to Q2 thanks to P14 in Practice. On Saturday morning the Belgian made good progress, finishing FP2 in sixth position and confirming a solid pace. In qualifying, however, he couldn’t replicate the same sharpness and will start from eleventh place on the grid, fourth row.
Mattia Pasini, making his second wildcard appearance of the season in Fantic Racing Redemption colors, was unable to find the ideal feeling with the bike and ended qualifying in P27.
The team is now fully focused on Sunday’s challenge, aware of its potential to be competitive on a technical and fast track like the Red Bull Ring.
Aron Canet: “It was a difficult qualifying, especially physically. After this morning’s crash I took a heavy knock to the head and in Q2 I suffered a strong headache, which prevented me from making a real time attack. I’m not worried though: we already showed our race pace in the free practice sessions, and tomorrow the key will be to repeat it in the race. Tonight I’ll just try to rest and recover to be at 100% tomorrow. It’s not the result I was hoping for, but we have the pace to recover and fight.”
Barry Baltus: “It wasn’t the qualifying we were expecting today. Yesterday we tried some changes to the bike that didn’t work, and in the end, we basically lost the whole day. It felt like starting from zero again this morning, with just 30 minutes on the bike before Q2. This morning I felt better, the pace was good and competitive. In qualifying it didn’t go as planned and we’ll start from P11, but here the gaps are really small — just a couple of tenths can put you on the front row. I’m confident, we can do a good job tomorrow in the race.”
Roberto Locatelli – Team Manager: “It was a tough qualifying day, and we didn’t end up in the positions we wanted with our riders. For Aron it was a difficult session: he was coming back from a very heavy crash this morning, so this was more like a qualifying session to prepare for the race. Still, we saw positive signs and collected useful data, so we’re confident of finding the right balance between speed and consistency tomorrow. Barry had a good session in the morning, despite yesterday’s issues and the limited laps completed, showing a rhythm that could have been more consistent and faster. In qualifying here in Austria the gaps are always tiny, and the race is long, so tomorrow we expect all our riders to take a step forward.”
