Pole position début in Moto2™ for the new Pirelli rear tyre
Vietti takes pole in Moto2™ with the D0532 development rear tyre, pole position and all-time lap record for Veijer in Moto3™
Today on the Sachsenring circuit Celestino Vietti (Red Bull KTM Ajo/Kalex) took pole position for tomorrow’s Moto2™ race. The Italian rider took pole gambling on the new rear tyre in D0532 specification which Pirelli developed specifically to tackle the treacheries of the German track. The standard SC0 rear, on the other hand, allowed Somkiat Chantra (IDEMITSU Honda Team Asia/Kalex) to set the new all-time lap record in the P1 session on Friday.
Dutchman Collin Veijer (Liqui Moly Husqvarna Intact GP/Husqvarna) will start from the first spot on the grid in Moto3™ after also setting the new all-time lap record in qualifying.
BARBIER INGLESE
The first take is a wrap for the new rear, confirmations from the other compounds
“We are extremely satisfied with the way our tyres performed during these first two days on the Sachsenring, a demanding circuit where Pirelli had never raced with international championships. This is why, for Moto2™, in addition to the standard allocation, we also decided to bring, for the first time this year, a development solution for the rear – the D0532 – as an alternative soft to the standard SC0. After being tried for the first time ever in the sessions on Friday, the riders gave us extremely positive feedback straight away and Vietti used it to take pole position. In any case, more or less all of the compounds managed to find a role for themselves. In terms of pure lap time, the SC0 rear paired with the SC1 front allowed Chantra to set the new track record. At the same time, the new D0532 option seems to provide rather similar grip to the SC0, with the advantage of greater consistency of performance over the long distance, so we think that it will likely be the most popular rear tyre for the race tomorrow. For the front, the best option will undoubtedly be the medium SC2, which is more stable and more consistent than the soft SC1, which is more susceptible to wear. For the Moto3™ race, we expect a fairly unanimous choice for the rear, with the medium SC2 clearly favoured because it is much more consistent than the SC1, whereas at the front, both the soft SC1 and the medium SC2 could be valid solutions. In both categories, the very few crashes and the new all-time track records were further confirmation of good tyre performance.”
TYRES ON POLE
Moto2™
· Both of the sessions on Friday were held on a dry track with asphalt temperatures between 21°C in FP and 26°C in P1. The fastest in FP was Marcos Ramirez (OnlyFans American Racing Team/Kalex), using the soft SC1 front and SC0 rear. In P1, the best performance came from Somkiat Chantra (IDEMITSU Honda Team Asia/Kalex), with the same choice of tyre compounds. In both sessions, the fastest riders broke the 2021 track record set by Raul Fernandez. In FP, Ramirez was 5 thousandths of a second faster, whereas in P1, Chantra improved on it by almost 7 tenths, setting the new all-time lap record.
· In qualifying, an amazing 17 riders dropped below the previous track record, with Celestino Vietti (Red Bull KTM Ajo/Kalex) taking pole position in 1’22.778 using the new D0352 rear solution. The Italian rider gained the upper hand over Jake Dixon (CFMOTO Polarcube Aspar Team/Kalex), second, and Fermin Aldeguer (MB Conveyors SpeedUp/Boscoscuro), third, who used the SC0 rear.
Moto3™
· In qualifying, all the riders used the rear tyres in soft SC1 compound, capable of providing more grip than the SC2 solution, and therefore better suited for flying laps. At the front, both the SC1 and the medium SC2 were used. Out of the top three riders, Collin Veijer (Liqui Moly Husqvarna Intact GP/Husqvarna) and David Alonso (CFMOTO Gaviota Aspar Team/ CFMOTO), respectively first and second, opted for the SC2, whereas Luca Lunetta (SIC58 Squadra Corse/HONDA) went with the SC1.
· Already in the P2 session on Saturday morning, Adrian Fernandez (Leopard Racing/Honda) had broken the track record, doing a lap in 1’25.053, a time which was then improved on in Q2 by pole man Collin Veijer who, on his final lap, set the new record with a time of 1’24.885, a full two tenths better than the previous time set by Ayumu Sasaki in 2023.
