Press Release From Q.M.M.F 8th July
Rain king West qualifies in seventh place and wants more in the race – Rosell improves in dry and in wet conditions
QMMF Racing Team rider Anthony West lived up to his reputation of having supernatural talents in wet conditions when he took seventh place in qualifying for the German Moto2 Grand Prix today. In a session with heavy rainfall that only eased towards the end, the Australian was consistently within the fastest riders on the track and could have been even higher up if time hadn’t run out for a tyre change. If the conditions are similar again in the race, West is determined to take full advantage of his good grid position and to fight for his best result this season so far.
Team-mate Elena Rosell was working successfully on her track knowledge and on improvements on the set-up of her Moriwaki prototype in the dry morning session. The only lady racer in the Grand Prix world championship also managed to improve in the wet qualifying, but missed out on a better grid position when she ran into a tyre problem again.
Anthony West – 7th in 1.35,110
“I should be happy but honestly, I was expecting to be even more towards the front in rain conditions. At the beginning of the qualifying session, I didn’t have a good feeling with the rear shock, so I came in for a pit stop and a change on the set-up. When I went out again, the feeling was better, but with this change, we had also sacrificed some of the tyre grip. I stayed out and I kept doing a lot of laps, so the consistency was good, but maybe I should have stopped for another set-up change and some new tyres in the end, because even though I tried everything, I couldn’t improve my lap time. But even though I missed the chance to chase an even better grid position, we should be satisfied with what we achieved today. It’s a good result for Moriwaki and the team and it’s a good position to start the race from. Sachsenring is a tough place to pass other riders, so to be in third row is going to be a bit of an advantage for us!”
Elena Rosell – 34th in 1.39,716
“In the dry session this morning, we continued to work on set-up improvements and we went quite well. I wish the dry conditions would have continued, because when it was wet again in the afternoon, I struggled because I just don’t seem to find a comfortable feeling in the rain. We also ran into the same problem with the rear rim that we had on day one, with the tyre losing pressure and the bike therefore moving around in a strange way. Nine minutes from the end I came in for a pit stop where we confirmed the problem. We made a wheel change and I managed to do three more laps. I did my best time on this last run, but it was tough to find back to a good rhythm!”
