MotoGP Qatar FP1: San Carlo Honda Gresini happy with
Marco Simoncelli – MotoGP news
Marco Simoncelli returned to his high pace performance with finishing fourth fastest in the Free Practice session held on Thursday at Losail circuit.
His teammate Hiroshi Aoyama finished at 12th place on the final time sheet of the night. Simoncelli worked hard to get to a perfect setup and then fine tune it to be steady and fast in the run he struck with a lap time of 1:56.441 seconds.
Previously, Simoncelli was the time chart dominator of the first Sepang preseason test held start of February at the Sepang International Circuit.
“I am really happy because it is always difficult during testing to know exactly where you are but those changes when things get serious and we are able to make more a concrete analysis. We managed to make two changes to the set-up that improved things
further and now it is just a case of confirming what we already know and getting ready for Sunday. In general I am feeling confident,” he said.
Hiroshi Aoyama also had pleasant and constructive evening practice session even he was standing bitter tenth place with a lap time of 1:56.987 seconds.
He said, “This was the first session of the season s o I was keen to do well. We started work on finding the best set-up for Sunday and the best feeling with the bike, working from what we learned in testing.”
The track conditions were comparatively better than at the last preseason test and the team will work to improve its present position, as in FP1 the main focus was to enhance the setup, not time laps.
The FP1 also had to face desert winds during the evening session, as the third and final preseason test was held earlier this week, covering the track with a layer of sand.
Fausto Gresini, the owner of San Carlo Honda Gresini team was over all happy and satisfied by the performance and results of the Free Practice session, especially considering the Simoncelli’s run at the evening.
Everyone is going good and is gaped by a few tenths of a second, excluding Casey Stoner. Stoner has been the dominator in overall in three pre-season test sessions, with his outstanding new 2011 RC212V. Gresini also shared, that Simoncelli has tried
two deferent settings, in which both he was running well. But he has some preferences so with little changes or modifications he will be even better to go. He felt that Aoyama did not had a bad practice session and looks forward to have him a good start for
the season.
“We are confident and over the next two days we will be working to improve further but for now we are happy and that is very important,” he said.
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