Italian Simone Saltarelli was the fastest rider in today’s first qualifying session for the second round of the Suzuki GSX-R Cup at Monza. His time of 1:54.562 was just over two tenths of a second ahead of his nearest rival Emeric Jonchiere. Third quickest today is Roland Resch, with Ismael Ortega fourth.
Race legend Fabrizio Pirovano is a ‘wild card’ rider here at Monza and he finished the day with the fifth fastest time, though many of rivals believe that he was holding back today and will be the one to beat come raceday. A surprise ‘wild card’ entrant today is former GP star Jeremy McWilliams. The Irishman decided to try and help out Briton Grant Molloy and is experiencing Monza for the very first time, but enjoying every minute.
Simone Saltarelli - 1st, 1:54.562I raced here in the Italian championship, so I have plenty of good circuit knowledge. Everything went pretty well today, except that our rear sprocket was too long. Because the qualifying session is not too long, we didn’t have time to change it, but we’ll do that for tomorrow and I’m sure I’ll go faster. It’s great fun racing against Pirovano, but I’m sure that he’s being a bit of old fox today and he’ll show his true colours on raceday. After all, this is his home track and he’ll be going for a win for sure.
Jeremy McWilliams - 15thI’m riding here to help out Grant (Molloy) but I am really having fun here, even though this is my first time at Monza. It’s a great track and I like it a lot because it is a proper racetrack and fast. This is a fun championship and being in it is like being in a big family.
Circuit: 5.793 kms
Conditions: Dry, sunny 26C
