Fourth row of the grid for Baltus in hot Indonesia, Van den Goorbergh qualifies in 20th
Barry Baltus qualified in 12th place in the Moto2 class for the Indonesian Grand Prix on Saturday. The Belgian rider made it through Q1 to Q2 and was eventually just four tenths away from pole position. Zonta van den Goorbergh qualified 20th for the race at the Pertamina Mandalika Street Circuit after crashing whilst on a very fast lap in Q1.
This weekend, the fifteenth Grand Prix of 2024 is being held at the Pertamina Mandalika International Circuit. After a long journey from Europe to Southeast Asia, the first sessions were run on Friday. Zonta van den Goorbergh closed the first day in 18th while Barry Baltus finished in 20th place. Conditions are challenging on the Indonesian circuit with bright sunshine, high temperatures and very high humidity.
On Saturday morning, the final practice session took place run in which both riders were not among the first fourteen, and thus had to take part in Q1. In this Q1 session, Baltus managed to set the fourth fastest time and qualify for Q2 after all. Van den Goorbergh was setting the fastest lap time of the session but would crash five corners before the finish. It meant he qualified 20th for Sunday’s race.
Baltus still managed to ride the 12th fastest time in Q2, just 0.407 seconds from pole position. It is his best qualifying result since the Grand Prix of the Americas in April.
Barry Baltus – P12: “This morning I was still struggling a bit, but in the afternoon we improved a lot. We did a lot of work to be able to make a big step in qualifying and it seemed to work, so I’m quite happy about it. I was a bit lucky in Q1 to be able to go Q2, but sometimes you need that bit of luck. In Q2 I managed to improve my lap time significantly in Q2 but it was still very close with just four tenths between twelve riders. It’s my best qualifying since Austin so there seems to be a bit of light at the end of a long dark tunnel. We need to continue working and perform in tomorrow’s race as well.”
Zonta van den Goorbergh – P18: “I’m not really happy with how today went. In the morning we had a technical problem that caused us to miss out on important track time because of the adjustments we made. I just missed a little bit in the second practice, which meant we couldn’t go straight through to Q2. Therefore we had to come through Q1 but in the first run I had a lot of problems with the front end. In the second run I was doing a very fast lap but in the last sector I lost the front over a bump, so I couldn’t finish it. We have to see if we can get these front-end problems solved because now we are asking too much of the front tyre. It will be a long and tough race tomorrow but the speed is there so we will see what is possible.”
Jarno Janssen – RW-Idrofoglia Racing GP team manager: “We could see today that both riders have the speed. Barry’s twelfth starting position in particular is nice and we are definitely happy with that as well. He worked hard and 12th position is just a good result, it gives a good starting position for tomorrow’s race. With Zonta, we also had to try to get from Q1 to Q2 and that’s always very tough. On his side, we faced a small technical problem and bad luck with a couple of yellow flags. He was on a very fast lap and when you drive like that it’s also up or down. That’s how you have to drive in this class and then it can sometimes happen that you’re just not lucky enough to stay put. Fortunately he is unhurt but it does mean you have to start from twentieth place. As I said, the speed is there so let’s hope that with a good start we can move further forward.”
The 22-lap Moto2 race at the Pertamina Mandalika International Circuit gets underway on Sunday at 13:15 local time, 07:15 Central European summer time.