Team Estrella Galicia 0,0 Marc VDS rider Franco. Morbidelli will start from 13th for the Czech Republic Grand Prix with Tom Luthi lining up 22nd on the grid.

The tropical heat with track temperatures touching 50 degrees continued at Brno today for a fast-paced qualifying session for tomorrow’s 21 lap race.

With a flying last lap dash Italian rookie Morbidelli secured 13th on the grid, jumping two positions after finishing 15th overall after the morning FP3 session.

Now back to full fitness Morbidelli missed going through to Q2 by just 0.177s but is well placed to challenge for points in the tenth round of the MotoGP World Championship.

For Luthi qualifying was a tough session with the Swiss rider having to switch to his spare Honda RC213V after quickly recovering from a crash at turn 11 in FP4.

Earlier Luthi was 25th after FP3 but bounced back with a solid qualifying lap of 1’57.208.

The Sunday morning warm-up will be at 9:40am with the  Czech Republic Grand Prix at the 5.4km Brno circuit set for 2pm.

Franco Morbidelli: 13th, 1’56.029
“This was a good day and we improved a lot compared to yesterday. I was feeling more comfortable with the bike after missing the last race race in Germany. I’m satisfied with qualifying even though we were missing some speed and I have a decent pace so I’m looking for a strong run in what will be a tough race in the hot weather.“

Tom Luthi: 22nd, 1’57.208
“In qualifying on my first run I had a lot of wheelspin but the second tyre was much better, a huge difference. I improved my time but I was still not fast enough to get a better position which was my goal. In FP4 I had some troubles with the front and even before the crash the front was tucking and I was really fighting with it.”