TEAM ALSTARE SUZUKI LEAVE QATAR HAPPY.
The final day of the Qatar tests ended with Team Alstare
Suzuki happy with the progress made during the three days
by their riders Fonsi Nieto and Yukio Kagayama. Neither rider
chased a fast lap time, preferring instead to concentrate
on working with the GSX-R1000 Suzukis and getting them ready
for the season ahead. Whilst Fonsi continued to work on understanding
and getting comfortable with the bike, Yukio once again shouldered
the burden of testing new parts and electronics. The team
now returns to the workshops and will analyse all the information
before preparing the bikes for the next tests in Australia.
Fonsi 1:59.0
I am very happy what we’ve done during these three days.
I’ve put in over 1000 kms here and every time I went
out on the bike, I was able to improve and that makes me happy.
I wasn’t trying for any fast lap times because I wanted
to work on understanding the bike and getting completely comfortable
with it first. We’ve tried many things these days, including
lots of work with the electronics and I’m very happy
how the whole team has worked - they’re a great bunch!
Today I didn’t change much on the bike, I just kept
working trying to improve it, bit by bit and that’s
what we did. At the moment, I’m 75% comfortable with
the bike, but I know that we can improve every time out, so
I am feeling very positive.
Yukio - 2: 00.9
For me, today was another day of testing, testing and then
more testing. But this is my job and I think we have done
a lot of good work here. I know that I have given a lot of
information to my team and now they will have to go back and
understand it and then work out what we should do next time.
My lap times are not so good, but that does not bother me
at the moment because it is more important to get as much
of this kind of work done during tests, instead of during
a race weekend. The more we do now and learn about means that
we don’t have to do this kind of work at a race. That
is our plan anyway! I am adapting my riding style in some
places on the track because of the nature of this bike and
for me that’s not easy, but it is not so hard. Overall,
I am very happy with the tests, but not so happy about the
two crashes. Yes, I had a crash today, when I highsided, but
it was no problem for my body.
Friday
1 Bayliss 1:58.1, 2 Haga 1:58.4, 3 Corser 1:58.5, 4 Checa
1:59.0, 5 Fonsi Nieto (E-Alstare Suzuki) 1:59.0, Fabrizio
1:59.1, 7 Yukio Kagayama (J-Alstare Suzuki) 2:00.9, 8 Kiyonari
2:01.8,
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