DOHA: After a strong performance in yesterday’s third free practice session, the QMMF Racing Team rider Anthony West dropped back to 27th place in qualifying for the French Grand Prix.
With a lap time of 1.39,255 minutes, the 32-year-old Australian was about a tenth of a second slower than in the morning session, but was unsure whether the rising track temperatures, a problem with the set-up of his Speed-Up prototype or his own riding style hampered his efforts.
Team-mate Roman Ramos ended the day in 33rd position, but was in good spirits despite a roller-coaster ride with the set-up of his bike. Trying to fix a small problem, he and his team went the wrong direction with their chassis and suspension adjustments and had to return to their previous settings in qualifying. Ramos found back to a strong and consistent rhythm but started his hunt for a good qualifying lap time a little bit too late and couldn’t get the best out of a new set of tyres. Nevertheless, the Spanish Grand Prix rookie is determined to put up a good show in the race.
Anthony West said: “ This morning I still wasn’t fast, but I was a little better than now in qualifying and I could repeat my times every lap. “But this afternoon, I was struggling. I just didn’t find any grip and couldn’t make the bike turn.
He added: “I was just sliding all the time. I tried different lines, followed other riders, did everything imaginable, but I just couldn’t get a good lap time.
Sam Lowes is fast with this bike, so there are no excuses - I just went slow and I don’t know why!”
In the meanwhile, Ramos said:
“We made a change from this morning to the afternoon in order to improve the bike, but it didn’t quite turn out the way we hoped, so we had to go back to our previous settings.
“We had a lot of work, so I didn’t get the best out of a new set of tyres that we mounted towards the end. I only managed to do two laps before we ran out of time,” he said before adding “But even though my grid position is not what we expected, I am still reasonably happy because I know that I have a good pace for the race.
“The bike works quite well, but we will obviously use the warm-up practice on Sunday morning to try and improve it further, so I can do the best race possible!”
Earlier, West made a promising start into the Grand Prix of France but his hopes of matching the pace of the front runners in the Moto2 category were dashed in the afternoon when he ran into unexpected difficulties. A set-up change failed to improve his Speed Up prototype combined with tyre problems prevented West from improving time on the Le Mans Circuit.THE PENINSULA
