Changeable track conditions, with short spells of almost dry track time and longer periods of rain, saw Katsuaki Fujiwara take 11th place in qualifying, at a circuit he always finds an affinity with.
His team-mate Chris Martin lost a little on his first day performance, and therefore starts from 14th place, but is confident that he can improve on his qualifying place on raceday, at one of his home circuits.
Weather conditions for raceday are again expected to be changeable, but long-range forecasts predict less heavy rain than today’s occasional intense downpours.
Because of the utterly unpredictable conditions the riders met each time they exited pit-lane, there was a wide spread of times in this normally tight class, and thus Fujiwara was 2.7 seconds from pole, but still confident of his raceday possibilities.
Katsuaki Fujiwara:
“It has not been such an easy day on the changing track surface we had, but I like the situation we finished in. Finishing 11th is not so bad compared to what could have been. With a good start I could have a good day here tomorrow, because I am the lap record holder, and love this racetrack. I hope it is wet because we obviously have a good set-up for that. If it is dry we won’t know what we can get!”
Chris Martin:
“The first two days on the bike have been pretty good, but today the weather caught us out and we were not quite hard enough on the settings of the front end. I was bottoming out on the approach to the hairpin so I had to compensate for that and sometimes that meant missing the corners. So that cost us a bit of time. But never mind, we will be on row three and four and I felt quite comfortable in the wet. The bike was good, the team is working well, but it was just timing that caught us out. There are a lot of differences between my UK bike and this, but we have all worked quite well together.”
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Wet Qualifying Unkind to PSG-1 Riders
PSG-1 Kawasaki Corse riders Régis Laconi and Makoto Tamada qualified 26th and 27th respectively for Sunday’s WSB races at Donington, in consistently wet weather conditions.
Unable to find the required grip and traction from the rear during what has been a generally wet weekend so far, Laconi was particularly unlucky in final qualifying as just as he was going out for his potential fastest laps he was met by monsoon conditions, making qualification for the top 16 impossible.
Weather conditions are expected to improve slightly for raceday, when Régis and Makoto will face two 23-lap races.
Régis Laconi:
“We have been able to find little grip from the rear and I cannot control the bike properly, no matter how I ride or how we change the machine. We have improved it of course but still we have the same kind of problem, just a bit less. Normally I look forward to riding in the wet but right now it is very hard. We have used our electronics to help us, and they can make me safe, but not make me fast.”
Makoto Tamada:
“It was very difficult for us in these conditions but we found more improvements in the afternoon untimed session, which we hope can let us improve in the races.”
