Tough qualifying for Viñales and Rodriguez down under
It has not been an easy weekend so far for the Blusens by Paris Hilton Racing Team riders. Both Maverick Viñales and Josep Rodríguez went through a difficult qualifying practice during which the wind, the threatening rain and the fact to ride on such an awkward track as that of Australia has not helped at all. Viñales managed to reach the ninth position on the starting grid in spite of the fact he crashed during the second free training practice and injured his finger. The time he wasted during this session proved to have been crucial when it came to carry out the setting-up of the bike and to adapt to the track so he could have got a better result at the qualifying practice. For his part, Josep Rodríguez, who also was discovering the complicated Philip Island circuit could not manage to go beyond the 21st position. His being a first-timer on this track and the unsuitable setting-upof the bike conditioned the qualifying result of the young Catalan rider.
MAVERICK VIÑALES (9º 1.40.334 +1.127): “ My crashing yesterday didn’t help at all, for sure. At the qualifying practice I tried out different adjustments which didn’t give the result expected although we had been working in the right direction but I am sure we’ll eventually find a suitable solution. Tomorrow we’ll have to take advantage of the warm-up to finish off the job and we’ll take it out to the track with our ususal motivation. I am sure we can do a good job.”
JOSEP RODRÍGUEZ (21º 1.41.963 +2.756): “I have found it more difficult than I expected. The track is really nice but it’s narrow, bumpy and fast. And withthe wind on top of that – which we are not used to at all – well , it’s sure enough a difficult job. I still haven’t found a setting-up which I am comfy with and I am lacking self-confidence as well. Now it’s time to study telemetrics, improve our weak points and do good job tomorrow.”
Source: Team BQR