San Carlo Honda Gresini’s Marco Simoncelli fifth, Hiroshi Aoyama seventh on Sepang grid – MotoGP news
San Carlo Honda Gresini rider Marco Simoncelli took fifth, while his teammate Hiroshi Aoyama came seventh on the grid for Shell Advance Malaysian Motorcycle Grand Prix.
Simoncelli said, “I was satisfied with our pace in the first half of the session when we were working on our race setting but not so much with the 'time attack' because just when we switched tyres I had a problem with a sensor and had to switch to my second
bike.”
Both Honda Gresini riders pushed hard to take the best out of the qualifying practice session, under the immense heat and humid climate.
Super Sic was able to lap impressive times during his first outing. Following his tyre change nearly about the mid of the session he faces a technical issue. The sensors started to malfunction which forced him to switch to his second bike.
Italian’s second bike had different settings that cost him the start from first row. After his increasing struggle on the track he returned to pitlane and tried a slight change in the setup, but it did not work at all.
Simoncelli is confident that he has the pace to challenge the top three Honda riders and can take a podium finish at Sepang. The crucial step is to choose a proper tyre for the raceday.
Italian’s teammate Aoyama was fighting hard to take a start from top-five slots, but he too ended up in fighting with hard climate conditions.
Aoyama stated, “I am satisfied with today even though we missed out on the second row by hundredths of a second. I have got a good feeling with the bike and I think we will run the soft tyres tomorrow.”
The Japanese rider added that he likes the racetrack. In his opinion, if the team can get a proper race setup then, he can fight closer to the top rider’s pack.
Last time at Phillip Island he crashed out due to short pour down, just ahead of Cal Crutchlow (Monster Yamaha Tech3).
Currently, Simoncelli stands on the sixth position in the 2011 world championship and his teammate is tenth on the point’s table.
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