Abraham: "To finish third is very satisfying"

Karel Abraham (Pull&Bear Aspar Team) leapt up the timesheets late on Friday at the Gran Premio Motul de la Republica Argentina, taking a stunning third place to end Day 1 as top Independent Team rider, just ahead of teammate Alvaro Bautista. Abraham, riding the GP15 Desmosedici Ducati, put in a best of 1:39.880 to end the day just over four tenths off Maverick Viñales (Movistar Yamaha MotoGP) in P1 – with changes in the weather overnight a possibility and a place in top ten combined times crucial for Q2 entry, leaving the Czech rider in a good position if it rains.

Karel Abraham, P3: “The Ducati has always been a good fit for me. I was close to finishing as the Rookie of the Year on it in 2011 and now I am back on a Ducati I can say I think this is the best bike I have ever ridden. I am happy to be near the top, we will keep working hard to stay here and we'll see what happens tomorrow. There was a little more grip this morning than this afternoon but everybody managed to improve. We started the second session on the same tyre we finished the first one with and managed to put race distance on it with good lap times right to the end. This morning we were already in the top five and to finish third at the end of the day is very satisfying.”