GIL Kawasaki competitor Katsuaki Fujiwara was only one-thousandth of a second from a front row start after qualifying in fifth position for Sunday’s Valencia WSS race.
Fujiwara’s best time of 1’37.232 was set on the first day of qualifying, as the higher temperatures on day two at Valencia prevented him from improving his lap time in the final session of timed practice.
Chris Walker, like his team-mate, found the warmer conditions on day two difficult to handle when trying to improve his previous best time, and he too relied on his first day high of 1’37.810 to go 14th on the Valencia grid. Walker now faces a start from the fourth row. Andrew Pitt will start from pole for Sunday’s 23-lap race.
Katsuaki Fujiwara: “We have a bit of a problem right now with rear chatter and we are working on that. We almost got on the front row but fifth position is not too bad here. It’s a lot better than the first two races of the season for sure. I think we can be OK for the full race distance, but we have to make sure our settings will allow is to be consistent.”
Chris Walker:
“We made a few changes to the bike today but they didn’t work out the way we wanted. Like at the test, when we have a different track temperature like today, we have to try twice as hard, but seem to go half as fast. The bike doesn’t feel bad at all it’s just difficult to get a lap time, because it’s hard to hold a line when the temperature goes up. I am disappointed because I really wanted to get on the second row to give myself more of a chance at the start of the race.”
