Positive start for Salom in Japan, hoping for top 5 finish

With sixth and eighth place in the free practices Luis Salom made a good start in Japan. At the Motegi circuit, the rider of RW Racing GP ultimately set a laptime of 2.00.438 in the second session. Only four riders, led by Maverick Vinales, came under two minutes.

Luis Salom would have loved to be part of that select group, but with his sixth place in the first practice and eighth in the second he was not dissatisfied. “I just did a lot of laps riding on my own, to increase my individual speed”, explained the Spaniard. “If you are riding with a few others you are much faster, especially on the long straight. This where I still lose some. Sometimes I wish that my chief mechanic Hans Spaan would be able to pull some horsepower out of a crate. But at the end of the day the bike is okay. The Aprilia is running smoothly. That’ll be fine this weekend. I am expecting that I can finish within the top 5.”

Salom is feeling well in Japan. His hand injury doesn’t seem to trouble him anymore and he has little inconvenience with jet lag. RW Racing GP arrived late (Wednesday night) in Japan to minimize the nuisance of having jet lag. “I like to sleep and do that a lot”, says Salom. “Especially here. Doing so, I don’t feel much of the time difference and the long flight.”

Source: RW Racing GP