Baltus qualifies on second row of the grid at Jerez, Van den Goorbergh seventeenth

Barry Baltus qualified sixth in the Moto2 class at the Circuito de Jerez – Ángel Nieto on Saturday afternoon. This was the best qualifying result of the Belgian’s career. Zonta van den Goorbergh also managed to secure a place in Q2 by going through Q1, posting the seventeenth fastest time in the end.

Fieten Olie Racing GP started the Spanish Grand Prix strongly at the Circuito de Jerez – Ángel Nieto. On Friday, in very hot conditions, Barry Baltus posted the ninth fastest time while Zonta van den Goorbergh finished the day in nineteenth place. On Saturday morning, cooler conditions determined which riders could go straight to Q2 and with a thirteenth time, Baltus secured a place. Van den Goorbergh finished twentieth but was less than two tenths short of a spot in Q2.

That meant the seventeen-year-old rider had to start in Q1. In that session, the Dutchman posted a lap time that put him in third, allowing him to join his teammate and the rest of the fastest Moto2 riders in Q2. In the second qualifying session, Baltus managed to qualify sixth with a 1’41.570, his best result in qualifying so far. Van den Goorbergh did a 1’42.071 to finish seventeenth, however his time from Q1 would have put him in fourteenth place.

As a result, the Fieten Olie Racing GP team put in an excellent performance at a track where all riders and teams have a lot of experience.

Barry Baltus – P6: “Today I achieved my best qualifying result so far. This morning the times were really tight but I felt quite good already. Then, in qualifying, I felt even better and with the second tyre I managed to put it all in one lap. It was a difficult one but it felt nice. Tomorrow is the race and we need to keep our focus because I expect that there will be many crashes with the high track temperature. I am happy with today and glad that we were able to continue in a good way after Austin.”

Zonta van den Goorbergh – P17: “I think we should be happy with how today went. We unfortunately didn’t go straight through to Q2, I think that was possible because our pace was good and for a long time it looked like it would be. I didn’t manage to string that one fast lap together so we came up just a little short.

In Q1 I went out first and did some strong laps on my own, which was good enough to go into Q2 and we were happy with that. In Q2 I didn’t go out on track until the second half of the session, again all alone. My first three laps were not perfect so I tried again at the end, unfortunately I then lost the rear and had to abort that lap as well. We could have had a place in the top 15 but we will start tomorrow from P17, we will do everything we can to get a good result from there.”

Jarno Janssen – Fieten Olie Racing GP team manager: “It was a super qualifying session for both drivers, the speed has been there all weekend for both of them. In the third practice, Zonta was very close to a place in Q2 but he delivered a very good performance in the afternoon, getting through Q1 with a good lap time.

For Barry it was his best qualifying so far, unfortunately what worked here didn’t work in Portimão and Austin. Second row on the grid is a fantastic result for us. Tomorrow is obviously another day but we have a good starting position, I am extremely proud of what was performed by the team today.”