MUGELLO, Italy: Anthony West had a strong start into the Grand Prix of Italy.
Despite a gearbox problem in the dry morning session, the 32-year-old QMMF Racing Team rider scored 17th place and was only 1.2 seconds behind provisional leader Esteve Rabat.
In wet conditions in the afternoon, the Australian “rain king” lived up to his reputation, clocking eighth fastest despite sliding a lot due to his dry suspension set-up.
Fast in all conditions, West is now confident to be able to score a top result in qualifying on Saturday afternoon and in the race today.
Mugello-newcomer Roman Ramos spent the morning session to learn his way around the magnificent 5.2 kilometre track of Mugello, but his progress was interrupted by rainshowers in the afternoon that made it impossible to methodically work on improvements on riding style and set-up for his Speed-up prototype. 33rd in the time sheets so far, the 23-year-old Spaniard now hopes for better conditions on the second day of practice.
“Normally, Mugello is the worst track for me in all the championship, but this time, we seem to be all right,” said West.
“I think we are on a good pace and I am feeling good despite a small mistake with the gearing that cost us a lot of time in the dry session this morning,” he stated. Ramos said: “Mugello is another new circuit for me and as beautiful it is, it is also challenging, because it is so fast, long and complex,” he said.
The first free practice session was very difficult because I had to learn my way around the track and the set-up of the bike wasn’t perfect, either,” he observed.
“In the second practice, it started to rain and we didn’t do too many laps. Now we hope that the weather will improve tomorrow.”THE PENINSULA
