Randy Krummenacher takes charge from “Domi” Aegerter in Catalunya
Zurich's Randy Krummenacher grabbed an 8th position in today's Moto2 qualifying session for the Catalan GP and became the fastest Swiss rider of the day in extremely hot conditions that prevailed on the track in Montmelo all day (more than 30 degrees air temperature with 52 degrees track temperature when the riders of this class went out on track). Today was more difficult for his Technomag-carXpert teammate Dominique Aegerter, currently 6th man of the current overall world championship standings, who will start from the 5th row of the starting grid tomorrow (14th position).
Randy Krummenacher (8th): "Many things that we had planned worked today. I knew that with this extreme heat it would be increasingly difficult to set a good lap time towards the end of the session. It was necessary to push from the start and I managed to follow this strategy well. On my first stop in the pits, we put a new tyre, changed some settings, trying to improve the behaviour of the front wheel, which wasn't satisfactory. A positive thing is that I have to say that with Suter I can do more fast laps in these difficult conditions than I could do with Kalex last year. At the end of the session, I was with Pol Espargaró, we both had used tyres and I can tell you that Pol had to make a lot of effort to keep his pace. And for the race? Even though it won't be as hot for the race, it will be necessary to play a good strategy and absolutely avoid sliding the rear tyre; overheating would have catastrophic consequences.
Dominique Aegerter (14th): "It was even warmer than yesterday but that was not the problem: I lacked confidence today and was unable to find a good pace at the beginning of the practice. The session went to plan but we simply did not find a solution. In the morning I had a crash in the last corner, having lost the front, but I am ok. For the race, I believe that many things can happen: Espargaró seems to be on another planet, Lüthi was fast all weekend even if he did not qualify that well. Everyone knows my objective - Top-5 as in every race. And I am well capable of that."
