Moncayo unhappy with shortened practice and still searching for good bike setup

While on the first day of practice for the Qatar Grand Prix the Moto2 riders were able to do two sessions, today they not only had just one session, but they also lost 10 minutes of valuable practice when big raindrops started to fall on the floodlight track of Doha. Additionally there was strong wind and the same large amount of dust on and around the track like yesterday, so the session turned out very difficult for the riders.

After about five or six laps the track marshalls had to show the rain flag. In Losail it’s not possible to ride in the rain due to the artificial lighting which makes for impossible vision in rainy conditions. It wasn’t a lot of rain, but it was dangerous for the riders. In 2009 the MotoGP race had to be postponed to Monday to due the rain.

Alberto Moncayo has previously riddedn at Qatar but not with a Moto2 bike which hampers him somewhat in trying to find a setup which allows him to ride comfortably. He did a total of 13 laps and finished in 32nd position, 4.4 seconds behind the leader. In the combined practice times he’s 30th.

Alberto Moncayo #17 (32º, 2.05.967, 13 laps): “We basically didn’t do any kilometres on the bike and with just four raindrops the track is already very slippery. We did a changed for the rear end which I didn’t like. We were not doing fine, we wanted to go a second faster and went a second slower instead. We have to select the tyres for qualifying wisely, because I don’t notice any difference between the hard and the soft one.”

Source: AGR Racing Press Release