After this morning's rains, the complicated track conditions put even the experienced MotoGP riders in trouble, in a session that saw many crashes and related red flags, also aided by the lower temperatures. However, Fabio Quartararo managed to go one better than his rivals by setting the best time in pre-qualifying with his M1 one tenth quicker than the Ducati of Alex Marquez. It was an encouraging result for the Frenchman who had started off with high expectations for the Dutch round, but rising temperatures in the coming days could negatively affect the weekend's outcome.
Yesterday you started off with high expectations, today you confirmed them.
"It was a good lap," Fabio explained, "the way we started this morning, I didn't expect an afternoon like that. The feelings during free practice though were great, doing the time attack wasn't easy because of the many red flags, there was a lot of traffic on the track so I only managed to do one but it was positive. Now the goal is to take another step forward for qualifying tomorrow."
How are you doing on race pace?
"It's good, but not the best. It's definitely a positive start for tomorrow's sprint, but for the race it's still unknown but I'm quite satisfied."
Grip is the aspect you usually have the most difficulty with.
"Today the grip wasn't so bad, but the temperatures were lower and running on the medium that explains the many crashes, the tyres weren't working well in these temperatures. The grip wasn't the best but it wasn't bad either."
The weather is expected to improve in the coming days, will this change things?
"For us it will be worse it is clear, to be realistic the higher the temperatures get the worse it is for us. But we will have to manage it and try to find a solution by making the most of the rear tyre, that will be the key. Today we saw a lot of crashes even in Moto2 in the last sector and I don't really know why. With the soft on the front I felt good."