MOTEGI, Japan: Both QMMF Racing Team riders Anthony West and Elena Rosell suffered small setbacks on the second day of practice for the Grand Prix of Japan and had to settle for the 20th and the 31st position on the grid.
West, who had been in a promising tenth position in the third free practice session yesterday morning, tried a little bit too hard to improve even further in qualifying, made some small mistakes when it counted and dropped back to 20th position on the grid.
But since the Australian is happy with the feeling and the set-up of his bike, he is still confident about his chances of a strong race finish well within the point rankings.
Rosell was only able to complete four laps in the morning session due to an early crash that caused some damage to her Speed-Up prototype.
After losing so much valuable track time, she went out in qualifying without the best possible set-up.
When she tried to push despite her lack of front end feeling and grip, she crashed a second time and had to settle for 31st on the grid. But even though her search for a better set-up will continue in the warm-up practice today morning, the lady racer from Valencia is also looking forward to the race and a battle with some other riders. West, who was timed at 1.52,686, said he was pleased with his performances in the first outing.
“The free practice session this morning was good. I was happy, it was easy and I was in tenth place with a good lap time,” West said.
“But unfortunately, the qualifying session didn’t turn out the same way. It had nothing to do with the bike, it worked well, but I probably put too much pressure on myself to put in a good time.
“In the end, I made small mistakes in some of the corners. Even though it was only fractions of a second here and there, these small mistakes added up and I ended up in 20th position.
“I would have liked to stay in tenth or even 15th place because my grid position now will make my race harder tomorrow. But nothing is lost yet: The difference from the last race is that I have much more confidence to attack and to do good lap times.
“This morning was easy, yesterday was easy, so I think I can be strong in the race. It’s going to be a fight, but I look forward to it,” West added.
Rosell, who was timed 1.54,674, said hers was a tough outing.
“To be honest, it was a difficult day in comparison to yesterday. Right at the beginning of the third free practice session this morning, I had a crash which cost us a lot of time, we lost almost the entire session,” Rossell said.
“In the afternoon, I tried to push, but we still didn’t have a perfect setting for my bike. I didn’t have a lot of grip and I also didn’t have a lot of confidence in the front end, so I lost it and slid off again.
“This time it was without consequence, the bike is still intact, so we can continue to think about a better set-up and how to get the grip and the front end feel that I’ve been missing.
“My goal is to improve my lap times. It’s going to be a difficult race, but I still think I can put up a fight within the small group of riders that have a similar pace,” she said. THE PENINSULA
