First day GP Italy was not easy
For the MotoGP group, this weekend is a bit of “coming home”. After the 2020 race on the beautiful track in the Tuscan hills was canceled due to the Covid19 pandemic, all teams started today for the Italian GP at the Mugello circuit.
The day started with mixed results for the NTS RW Racing team. Hafizh Syahrin had a good start to the practices and managed a decent 12e time during the morning. The Belgian Barry Baltus had a hard time today on the tough and fast track and did not get further than the 30th place. Unfortunately, during the afternoon session (FP2), Hafizh was unable to continue his good classification. He finished the training in 24th place. Barry did improve one position. So there is still plenty of work to do before the important Saturday and team manager Jarno Janssen is aware of that. “We started well today and I have confidence in the team and the drivers for further improvements in FP3 and qualifying tomorrow.”
Malaysian Hafizh Syahrin looks back with mixed feelings: “I was very satisfied with my time this morning. With a 12e place I would get QP2! Unfortunately I couldn’t hold onto that spot despite going almost half a second faster during FP2. It also didn’t help that I was boxed in on a good lap. But I’m happy with the improvements to my bike the team has made and I believe we can improve tomorrow towards a place in QP2.”
The Belgian debutant Barry Baltus indicates that it was not easy today: “Moto2 is really very different from riding in the Red Bull Rookies! The speed difference is big and for me it was a matter of searching and learning. Luckily I was able to be a second faster in FP2 than earlier in the day. I knew I had to find a group in which I could improve and thanks to my teammate Hafizh I succeeded.”
