Sachsenring, Germany – 11 July 2015: Team Estrella Galicia 0,0 Marc VDS rider Tito Rabat will start his quest for a career first Moto2 rostrum at the Sachsenring track from the second row of the grid.

The Spaniard will start tomorrow’s 29-lap race from sixth position, with a best lap of 1.24.507 leaving him less than 0.3s away from a sixth front row start of 2015.

Rabat was an impressive third fastest in FP3 this morning, but he inevitably began struggling with pain and fatigue in his right shoulder this afternoon, with today’s action in Germany taking place just one week after he broke his right collarbone in a training accident in Almeria.

Two crashes this morning were not only physically demanding for Álex Márquez, but the falls at turns 4 and 12 dented the 19-year-old’s confidence heading into this afternoon’s qualifying session.

As a result, the reigning Moto3 World Champion found it difficult to break into a fast rhythm and his personal best lap of 1.25.506 left him down in 24th place on the grid.

With overtaking notoriously difficult on the tight and twisty Sachsenring track, Márquez remains confident that an aggressive first phase of the race can see him mount a challenge for a points scoring finish.

Tito Rabat: 6th – 1’24.507
“The team have done a fantastic job this weekend in helping me be as comfortable as possible on the bike. But I must admit that towards the end of qualifying after another day of pushing to my absolute maximum, I had some pain and tiredness from the shoulder and I just couldn’t do any more. The front group have a very fast pace but I am happy with my rhythm and I will try and challenge them from the start tomorrow.”

Álex Márquez: 24th – 1’25.506
“The big problem of today was the two big crashes in FP3 this morning. They definitely hit my confidence and we changed a lot on the bike during the day but I just couldn’t get a good feeling to push any harder. We will make some more modifications in warm up tomorrow morning and try and make the best result possible. It will be difficult starting so far back, but I hope to score some points and salvage something from a very tough weekend.”

Michael Bartholemy: Team Principal
“In Tito’s condition he has delivered the best result we could possibly expect and it is easy to forget it was only one week ago he broke his collarbone. I am confident he can still be fighting for the podium tomorrow and that would be a great reward for his determination to overcome difficult circumstances with the injury. Álex has had a very difficult weekend. He was struggling yesterday and the two big crashes this morning meant he lost a lot of confidence. The race is another story and hopefully he can go into the summer break with some of his confidence restored by a top 15 finish.”