M2: San Marino GP: Tech 3 qualifying report

The Tech 3 Racing Team remain confident of a strong showing in tomorrow's Misano Moto2 race after a tough qualifying session for Yuki Takahashi and Raffaele de Rosa. A fantastic last lap attack from Takahashi catapulted the Japanese rider over ten ...

The Tech 3 Racing Team remain confident of a strong showing in tomorrow's Misano Moto2 race after a tough qualifying session for Yuki Takahashi and Raffaele de Rosa.

A fantastic last lap attack from Takahashi catapulted the Japanese rider over ten places up the grid in a qualifying session that saw less than 1.3s split the top 20.

Takahashi's best lap of 1.40.075 will see him start round 11 of the inaugural Moto2 world championship from 13th, the Catalunya race winner less than half-a-second away from the top six after he recovered from an early crash.

It was a tough afternoon for de Rosa, who was hoping to draw on the support of a passionate home crowd to inspire him to a second successive top ten starting position.

But pushing hard to fight his way into the top 20 in the final stages, de Rosa crashed unhurt and will start the 26-lap race from 28th position. He set a best time of 1.40.930 and was less than 0.5s away from the top 20.

Yuki Takahashi 13th 1.40.075 -- 19 laps

"It has not been an easy weekend at all and my problem is a lack of feeling with the front-end. I have not been able to push like I know I am capable of but in the qualifying session I think we made some good progress. I had a small crash in the first run and the team did a fantastic job to repair the bike. But I didn't have a front brake adjustor and that made it difficult for me in the final run. I have to be satisfied because sometimes after a crash it can take a while to regain some confidence and be immediately back on the same pace. But I was able to do this and to be in 13th is not a bad result, but obviously I know we have the potential to be much higher. I need a good start to avoid what is likely to be a hectic first corner and I'll try and be aggressive in the first few laps to get away with the leading group."

Raffaele de Rosa 28th 1.40.930 -- 18 laps

"It is very disappointing to be so far down the grid for my home race and 28th makes the job of trying to score points very difficult. At the moment we just can't seem to find an improvement with the bike for how I like to ride. I want to brake deeper but each time I try and be stronger in this area the bike doesn't allow me to do it and I crash. We have tried many different solutions to help in this area but nothing is working and we can't change the character of this bike to suit my style, so I have to keep working on myself. My grid position is not good and it will be difficult at the first corner with so many bikes in Moto2, but I will try and get a positive result."