The CarXpert PrüstelGP team will start the AmericasGP with Filip Salac from the third row and Yamanaka from P23.
Contrary to the first day of the race weekend in Austin, Texas, today’s practice sessions were completely dry. At almost 29°C Filip Salac and Ryusei Yamanaka competed in the qualifying sessions in the afternoon, after they had both used the third free practice session in the morning to make further adjustments to the bikes.
Filip Salac was in first place on the combined practice sessions yesterday, Friday. This morning he was unable to repeat this, but finished in ninth place with still a very good feeling. He thus made it directly to Q2, where he took seventh place, 0.459 seconds behind pole position.
Ryusei Yamanaka had been struggling to find a good feeling for the bike since the first practice session. However, after yesterday’s crash, in which the Japanese rider remained fortunately uninjured, this feeling began to develop into a positive one today. Yamanaka was 9th in the first qualifying session and will start the race from the eighth row on the grid (P23).
Filip Salac #12 (P7 | 2’16.445):
“The second day today was great as well. We worked hard – in FP3 I did my fastest lap completely on my own, so I knew I could be fast in qualifying as well. Unfortunately, I was held up by other riders at the end of a fast lap so I couldn’t get that fast lap time across the finish line. Nevertheless, I think that with P7 we have a good starting position to show a top performance in the race tomorrow.”
Ryusei Yamanaka #6 (P23 | 2’18.068):
“For me, the start of the weekend was very difficult. Yesterday I had troubles finding a good feeling for the bike. Today everything went a little better, I was able to slowly build up confidence in the tight corners and the bike. The improvement from FP1 to qualifying was going well and I hope to build on that in the race tomorrow.”
Pictures by © [2021] RLekl
