Finnish Ajo Motorsport team and its rider duo of Spanish Red Bull Ajo Motorsport rider Marc Marquez and German Avant Mitsubishi Ajo rider Sandro Cortese will start their World Championship chase as the MotoGP –series opens with the coming weekend’s night race in Qatar.
Cortese and Marquez will take their Derbi RSA-bikes to the track in Qatar on Friday evening for the seasons first official session. Starting positions for the season’s opening race on Sunday evening will be decided, like last year, in a single qualifying session on Saturday evening.
The Ajo Motorsport Derbi riding duo has been strong in the pre-season with Red Bull Ajo Motorsport’s Marquez controlling the testing timesheets from the front and Avant Mitsubishi Ajo’s Cortese right on his tail in record pace and setting fourth fastest time on the final official test in Jerez. After a strong showing in the tests, the team head to the Qatar weekend in a confident mood and the aim is set to fight in the front group of the highly competitive field of riders.
MARC MARQUEZ, RED BULL AJO MOTORSPORT:
“I can’t really wait for the racing to start! We’ve done a good job in the tests, and we managed to try many things. I feel really confident with the team and with the Derbi RSA-bike, so I feel that we have what it takes to fight at the front. Of course, we don’t get any points from testing, so now we need to keep up the good work and after Sunday we know a bit more.”
SANDRO CORTESE, AVANT MITSUBISHI AJO:
“Its really nice to finally go racing again! We have good memories from the podium here last year of course, so we try to build on that and see if we can maybe improve just that little bit. The testing has gone well and I think we should be quite ready for the season, but of course the points will be given only after the race.”
Team Manager Aki Ajo
”We’ve worked really hard during the testing with Sandro and Marc, and we’ve managed to test quite a lot of different things, so we should be ready for the season to start. Of course, testing is only testing, and the season will only start on Friday’s free practice, but we try to keep the aim at the front of the pack. Marc and Sandro make a really strong rider duo, but there are many strong riders lining up on the grid, so Sunday should be quite interesting.” |
