Tito Rabat crashes out of Sachsenring practice

Team Estrella Galicia 0,0 Marc VDS riders Jack Miller and Tito Rabat battled cold and blustery conditions to make a positive start to the German MotoGP round at Sachsenring today.

Cool and damp conditions this morning restricted Dutch TT winner Miller and Rabat to just a handful of laps, with both opting for a safety first approach as track temperature peaked at just 15 degrees.

Conditions remained ominously cloudy but mainly dry for FP2, and despite a biting breeze still blowing around the 3.67km track, Miller and Rabat were able to carry out crucial work to gain experience of Michelin’s new asymmetric front tyre, which is part of the tyre allocation for the first time in 2016.

Michelin’s asymmetric front has been designed with a softer compound on the right side to help with initial warm-up performance and to maintain temperature, with Sachsenring dominated by 10 left turns in its 13-corner layout.

The impressive performance of the new asymmetric front still couldn’t prevent Rabat from being one of several crashers at the downhill turn 11, which is a fast right-hander taken in fifth gear with a blind approach.

The Spaniard was unhurt in the 200kph spill and a fastest time of 1.24.746 placed Rabat in 19th position on the combined leaderboard.

Tito Rabat: 19th – 1’24.746
“Losing most of the session this morning, and the conditions being cold and windy for FP2, made today difficult for me because I need time on track to gain experience of riding a MotoGP bike here. It is difficult to get temperature in the front tyre, especially on the right side because turn 11 is the only fast right where you work the front hard. The conditions made it difficult but I was happy to improve on my last run but the crash at turn 11 caught me by surprise. I’d just clicked fifth gear and turned in when the front suddenly washed out. Fortunately I don’t have any pain, so I can return tomorrow motivated to give my maximum and improve my feeling.”

Source – Team Estrella Galicia