The qualifiers in the Solidarity Grand Prix of Barcelona, the final round of the 2024 World Championship GP Motorcycle Racing season, were dominated by Aron Canet (Fantic Racing/Kalex) and newly crowned 2024 world champion, David Alonso (CFMOTO Valresa Aspar Team/CFMOTO), who will start from pole position tomorrow respectively in the Moto2™ and Moto3™ races.
The Colombian pole man also set the new track lap record for the Moto3™ category, breaking the one he himself had already set with Pirelli tyres during the Grand Prix of Catalunya in late May earlier this year. In Moto2™, Canet just barely missed breaking the record Sergio Garcia set earlier this year, but he still lapped a full second faster than the previous track record which had stood since 2021.
One more record in our collection as we await tomorrow’s race
“Compared with the same sessions in the GP of Catalunya held in May, in practice yesterday, the riders lapped rather slowly due to the track not being very rubberised and the extremely low asphalt temperatures, just over 10°C. Between yesterday and today, the track developed well and the asphalt temperatures increased slightly leading up to the qualifiers, although never getting close to the numbers recorded in May, allowing the riders to improve session after session until setting the new track lap record in the Moto3™ qualifiers, breaking the one which Alonso himself had set in May. Canet missed the same achievement by just one tenth of a second, partly due to the yellow flag that came out toward the end of Q2. As for the tyres, the most popular for qualifying in both categories, as is natural, were the soft compounds. In Moto2™, the soft D0640 development solution seems to provide better grip overall on the flowing sections compared with the soft standard SC0, so it should be the favourite for the race, combined with the soft SC1 front which, for the same reason, is more popular than the medium SC2. In Moto3™, there is a bit more indecision but the medium SC2 should be the choice for tomorrow’s race in both categories, although there will certainly be some using the soft SC1 at the rear or at the front. This is a positive sign because it means that all the compounds are competitive and that our selection for this GP fully met expectations.”
Moto2™
· Aron Canet (Fantic Racing/Kalex) took pole position with a time of 1’42,003 after dominating all the practice sessions. The Spaniard improved on his own time by more than 7 tenths between FP and P2 before shaving off another 2.5 tenths in qualifying. In all the sessions, Canet used the soft D0640 development tyre at the rear combined with the medium SC2 front in FP and the soft SC1 front in P1, P2, and qualifying.
· Asphalt temperatures: with 11°C track temperatures, the P2 session on Saturday was the coldest, whereas the P1 session on Friday afternoon was the warmest: 20°C asphalt. The qualifiers were held with asphalt temperatures around 20°C, just like the P1 session.
Moto3™
· Relying on tyres in the medium SC2 compound at the front and soft SC1 at the rear, David Alonso (CFMOTO Valresa Aspar Team/CFMOTO) took pole position for tomorrow’s race with a time of 1’45.905, which also sets the new track lap record, breaking his own previous record set this year during the GP of Catalunya by more than 2 tenths of a second.
· In the practice sessions, Alonso was never the fastest and three different Spanish riders took turns occupying the lead. FP was dominated by Ángel Piqueras (Leopard Racing/Honda), P1 by Daniel Holgado (Red Bull GASGAS Tech3/GasGas), and P2 by Iván Ortolá (MT Helmets-MSI/KTM). In order to achieve these times, they all used the same compounds Alonso used in qualifying, with the exception of Holgado who used a soft SC1 at the front and a medium SC2 rear in P1. |
