Raffaele de Rosa had one of his best qualifying performances of his Moto2 season by taking 10th position for tomorrow’s Moto2 race. De Rosa pushed a little too much towards the end and crashed out on turn 5. Despite the crash, he will start the race 0.042s off the second row and is looking for a strong start to stay with the leading group.

By contrast, his team-mate Yuki Takahashi, had a torrid weekend and qualified in 26th position. Takahashi experimented with a modified chassis yesterday, but whilst feeling some improvements, he chose to revert back to the previous version to clock a best time of 1.56.440. Takahashi was in Japan earlier in the week for Tomizawa’s funeral and is determined to produce a strong performance tomorrow in Tomizawa’s memory.

Raffaele de Rosa 10th 1.55.794 – 17 laps
“This is the second race in the last three that I have qualified in the top ten and that is very encouraging. It shows that all of the hard work we have put in is paying off and now I’m looking forward to getting my first top ten finish tomorrow. I think I could have been a bit higher up the grid but trying to improve at the end I used a little bit too much brake pressure and lost the front at turn five. Luckily I am fine and I’ll be ready for the race. The bike feels better than when we tested here in July and we have got some good information to modify the set-up for the race and I’m confident I can be fighting in the points again.”

Yuki Takahashi 26th 1.56.440 – 20 laps
“It has been a difficult weekend. We had a good test here in July and we arrived confident of a strong weekend. Unfortunately it hasn’t worked out like that. We started with the base setting from the test but we used a modified chassis. The Tech 3 Racing Team worked really hard to build the frame but with the rain yesterday and some small problems we couldn’t find the right feeling with the time available. This afternoon we went back to the old frame and I was immediately faster but I’m still a long way down the grid. We will try some different settings tomorrow to see if we can improve but I am really determined to have a strong race in memory of my friend Shoya Tomizawa. I miss him a lot and I will be trying my best for him in tomorrow’s race.”

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