QatarGP: Tom Lüthi focuses on the race

Tom Lüthi will start the opening race of Qatar at the Losail International Circuit from the sixth row of the grid. After some progress in Friday's second free practice session, the difficulties in Saturday's qualifying caught up with him again.

The first day was consistently positive for Tom Lüthi: even if the desired level was not yet reached, the Swiss was able to improve steadily. On Saturday, however, the upward trend did not continue on a constant basis: with a gap of 1.182 seconds, he will start Sunday evening's race from the sixth row. Nevertheless, Tom and his team are positive - the focus is on the race and nothing is impossible in the demanding Moto2 class. 

The race will start at 17.20 (Swiss time) on Sunday, 28 March.

Tom Lüthi:
(17th position / +1.182)

It was a little bit mix of feelings for me. I’m not satisfied with the result in the qualifying. The expectations were higher specially after the step forward we made in FP2 yesterday. That was very positive I was excited to go on the bike today. This afternoon the conditions were too hot again. I was waiting for the Q2 to see where we can improve. It was a little bit a shock that we couldn’t improve, we went slower and it was very difficult overall. It was absolutely on the limit and I couldn’t make any places forward. Now, we have to accept it and try to understand our next steps. It will be the same issue tomorrow. In the warm up we will not understand a lot. It will be a different feeling because of the temperature. We have to focus on the race. We still have a chance in the race to make any good positions and to make some steps forward. First of all, we need to work on trying to have a better feeling for the front specially. This is where we still lose a lot of time. The team is great and they keep on working hard. Let’s look forward.  

• Full result FP3
• Starting grid Moto2
• Lap time analysis