22 April 2022 – Autódromo Internacional do Algarve – Portugal

On this first day of testing the weather conditions on the Algarve were very severe and created many problems, especially due to the strong wind. During free practice 2, eight minutes from the end, the red flag was displayed, to allow the stewards to recover many advertising panels that have literally flown on the track.

Ayumu got good times in the first session, at the end of which he ran into a harmless slip. In the second session he managed to lower his chronometric reference by almost half a second, managing to get the twelfth position in the combined classification. His best lap was 2’03.456, delayed by the leader of the combined free prectice M. Aji by 0.965 seconds.

As we already know, from the other side of the pits we have David Salvador, who reached the track last night. David gradually got familiar with the wet track and without making mistakes in FP1, got the fifth time. In the afternoon session, due to the red flag exposure he could not improve his best time, equal to 2’03.551. For our rookie, a gap of 1.060 s and the fifteenth position.

We leave you to the words of our riders and our Team Owner Max Biaggi.

AYUMU SASAKI : “I am happy about today. There were some very difficult conditions because of the wet track and the strong wind, but we managed to go quite fast. We are in Q2 at the moment. I found a good set-up on the wet compared to last time in Indonesia, so I am happy about that as well. Hopefully tomorrow is going to be better and we can do some good qualifying.”

DAVID SALVADOR : “Today was a very difficult day, as the track conditions were not easy to interpret. I feel that we did a great job, since I managed to have a good feeling with the bike. I did many laps this morning and this allowed me to understand the bike in these new conditions for me. When I wanted to improve my time in the afternoon, the session was stopped, and it was no longer possible to get on the track.”

MAX BIAGGI – TEAM OWNER : “Very difficult day today here in Portimao. Making mistakes in these conditions is very easy, but fortunately both Ayumu and David did not have big problems. Ayumu got a good time, while it is amazing the fifth position of David in the morning session. Considering that he traveled the night to reach the circuit, this is a good result. We hope that the weather can improve, in order to see some qualifying with a dry track.”

Results Grande Prémio Tissot de Portugal 2022 – Combined FP1 – FP2

1. Mario AJI (Honda) 2’02.491, 12. Ayumu SASAKI (Husqvarna) 2’03.456, 15. David SALVADOR (Husqvarna) 2’03.551.