Sasaki seventeenth at Silverstone despite setback in qualifying, Van den Goorbergh twentieth

Ayumu Sasaki qualified seventeenth for the British Grand Prix at Silverstone on Saturday afternoon. The Japanese rider crashed early in the second qualifying session, but thanks to his lap time from Friday afternoon, he still secured seventeenth place on the starting grid. Zonta van den Goorbergh was unable to advance from Q1 to Q2 and will therefore start from twentieth position.

The race weekend at the Silverstone Circuit began on Friday under favourable conditions with sunshine and reasonably pleasant temperatures. In the afternoon session, Ayumu Sasaki secured a direct place in Q2 with an impressive seventh fastest time while Zonta van den Goorbergh, who set the seventeenth time, would have to participate in Q1.

Saturday morning brought less favourable conditions, with a still-wet track after earlier rainfall. The track dried out during the day, but the grip level was not the same as on Friday. Van den Goorbergh started strongly in Q1 and immediately placed himself in the top four. However, in the final stages of that session, the Dutchman dropped back to sixth, which resulted in twentieth place on the grid.

Sasaki began the Q2 session with high hopes, but it quickly turned into disappointment due to a crash. This meant the Japanese rider couldn’t set a lap time, but because another rider suffered the same fate, he still qualified in seventeenth place.

Ayumu Sasaki (P17 – No time set):
“It was a disappointing end of the day in qualifying. I crashed out on the first lap and it’s the same mistake I made in France, so I’m disappointed about that. However, the feeling has definitely been improving this weekend and I felt good on the bike, which is the most important thing. I feel sorry for the team because I think we could have reached the top ten today, but I couldn’t do that. I hope that tomorrow I can make a good start and have a great race. Let’s try to make another step forward.”

Zonta van den Goorbergh (P20 – 2’03,692):
“Today didn’t turn out as badly as it seemed after Q1. My lap time would have earned me ninth place in Q2, but despite that, I’m still not happy with the feeling I currently have. I’m riding at 100%, and even that’s not enough to make it into Q2. Right now, we’re simply lacking speed. Because of the issues we had yesterday, which were beyond our control, we’re playing catch-up. The team has resolved all the technical problems, so huge thanks for that, but it did cost us a lot of time. I felt good this morning in the half-wet / half-dry conditions, and that might turn out to be important for tomorrow. As soon as it’s fully dry I’m riding too much on the limit, so we need to push that limit further and get a better feeling with the bike.”

Jarno Janssen – RW-Idrofoglia Racing GP team manager:
“It was a real shame we couldn’t reach Q2 with Zonta. It looked like we were close, but in the final lap we just didn’t have that bit of luck on our side. In such a strong field, you can’t underestimate anyone, and unfortunately, we just missed out. With Ayumu it had actually been a good weekend up to qualifying, and we have good pace. Unfortunately, he crashed on his first flying lap in qualifying — and that’s the third time now. He knows that can’t happen, but it’s something we need to work on. In any case, he’ll start from seventeenth on the grid and Zonta from P20, so it’ll be a tough one tomorrow. The conditions look good, so they’ll need to give it everything they’ve got.”

The Moto2 race over 17 laps at the Silverstone Circuit will start on Sunday at 11:15 a.m. local time, 12:15 p.m. Central European time.