Red Bull Indianapolis Grand Prix
FIM Moto2 World Championship
Indianapolis Motor Speedway
Indianapolis, Indiana
August 8, 2014
Free Practice Two Results (all using Honda engines and Dunlop tires):
1. Dominique AEGERTER, Switzerland (SUTER), 1:37.518
2. Sandro CORTESE, Germany (KALEX), 1:37.528
3. Esteve “Tito” RABAT, Spain (KALEX), 1:37.697
4. Thomas LUTHI, Switzerland (SUTER), 1:37.777
5. Anthony WEST, Australia (SPEED UP), 1:37.883
6. Simone CORSI, Italy (KALEX), 1:38.007
7. Maverick VIÑALES, Spain (KALEX), 1:38.191
8. Luis SALOM, Spain (KALEX), 1:38.210
9. Alex DE ANGELIS, San Marino (SUTER), 1:38.247
10. Jordi TORRES, Spain (SUTER), 1:38.293
11. Mika KALLIO, Finland (KALEX), 1:38.353
12. Takaaki NAKAGAMI, Japan (KALEX), 1:38.492
13. Lorenzo BALDASSARRI, Italy (SUTER), 1:38.508
14. Sam LOWES, UK (SPEED UP), 1:38.511
15. Xavier SIMEON, Belgium (SUTER), 1:38.522
16. Julian SIMON, Spain (KALEX), 1:38.591
17. Hafizh SYAHRIN, Malaysia (KALEX), 1:38.603
18. Mattia PASINI, Italy (KALEX), 1:38.642
19. Louis ROSSI, France (KALEX), 1:38.710
20. Johann ZARCO, France (CATERHAM SUTER), 1:38.731
21. Randy KRUMMENACHER, Switzerland (SUTER), 1:38.750
22. Franco MORBIDELLI, Italy (KALEX), 1:38.784
23. Nicolas TEROL, Spain (SUTER), 1:38.833
24. Marcel SCHROTTER, Germany (TECH 3), 1:38.846
25. Axel PONS, Spain (KALEX), 1:38.921
26. Ricard CARDUS, Spain (TECH 3), 1:38.934
27. Jonas FOLGER, Germany (KALEX), 1:39.008
28. Josh HERRIN, USA (CATERHAM SUTER), 1:39.058
29. Azlan SHAH, Malaysia (KALEX), 1:39.102
30. Tetsuta NAGASHIMA, Japan (TSR), 1:39.486
31. Gino REA, UK (SUTER), 1:39.554
32. Robin MULHAUSER, Switzerland (SUTER), 1:39.956
33. Thitipong WAROKORN, Thailand (KALEX), 1:40.122
34. Roman RAMOS, Spain (SPEED UP), 1:40.153
More, from a press release issued by AirAsia Caterham Moto2 Team:
Moto2 Resume On Track Action at Indianapolis
Circuit: Indianapolis Motor Speedway
Circuit Length: 4.170 m
Bike # 5 – Johann Zarco
FP1: P24; 1’39.675 – 24 laps
FP2: P20; 1’38.731 –20 laps
Bike # 2 – Josh Herrin
FP1: P29; 1’40.100 – 22 laps
FP2: P28; 1’39.058 – 22 laps
Weather
FP1: (Conditions) Dry; (air temp) 23°, (track temp) 29°
FP2: (Conditions) Dry; (air temp) 25°, (track temp) 39°
Day one at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway saw Moto2 rookie Josh Herrin pick up the pace at his home Grand Prix.
Despite being disappointed with his final finishing position, the American worked hard to improve his time and show his ability to run in the top twenty throughout both Free Practice sessions.
Meanwhile Johann Zarco got off to a harder start as he struggled to get to grips with the 4.170 m circuit.
#5 Johann Zarco: “It has been a difficult first day. I am so far down in the classification. To finish in twentieth position is not good.
“I need to understand how to ride on this track because it looks like I don’t have a good riding style here, so I must learn everything again. I will think tonight how I can do better tomorrow.
“We don’t have any problems on the bike really. I just need to try to find the line and be strong. For sure I am disappointed at the moment but I am still focussed to understand and to do better because I know we can improve.”
#2 Josh Herrin: “Today has gone OK. The beginning of Free Practice one felt really good and as I became more comfortable I wanted to try something, but it set us back a bit. I knew I had the pace though so it wasn’t too bad.
“In the second session we immediately dropped our times and eventually got down to a 1m39.2s. We decided to try out a new softer tyre but unfortunately it didn’t work as I felt a lot of chatter from it. I was happy with the time but not the position. I know that if we’d have stayed out on the hard tyre we could have at least got it into the mid 1m38s, which would have been great.
“I feel like I’ve improved a little bit and been more consistent. At one point we were up to fourteenth place which is by far the best position we have achieved so far, so hopefully tomorrow I can continue to progress.”
More, from a press release issued by QMMF Racing Team:
Strong start for Anthony West after the summer break – Roman Ramos learns the track and improves
QMMF Racing Team rider Anthony West stormed to fifth place on the first day of practice for the Indianapolis Grand Prix. The 33-year-old Australian arrived in the USA with his batteries fully charged after three weeks of summer holidays down under, but this was not the only key to his success: Good rear tyre grip on the re-surfaced Indy brickyard made all the difference to his Speed Up-bike, which performed so well that West didn’t require any changes to the set-up of his bike for Saturday and even postponed the test of a new part for the rear suspension.
Team-mate Roman Ramos is a newcomer to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and is still in the process of learning the track and adapting his riding style to the legendary 4.1 kilometre circuit. Even though he improved by almost one second from the morning to the afternoon, he still trails the field, but is confident to climb up in the time sheets when it counts in qualifying.
Anthony West – 5th in 1.37,883
“I feel good after this long break. It was the right decision to go home to Australia after six months. I was starting to get really homesick and I was happy to go home and refresh. Now I’m back, I feel good and it shows in practice. I am fast, but it’s also the track that allows us to get plenty of rear grip, which helps me a lot. I have been complaining about a lack of rear grip at many races this year, but here, the bike seems to be working fine and I have a good feeling from the rear. It makes everything else work properly as it should, the bike is turning, I can keep speed in the corners and I can run the lines I want to run. I feel good, I feel strong and the bike worked so well today that won’t change anything for tomorrow. I also hope that the track conditions will be the same, so I can go faster again and fight for a good grid position!”
Roman Ramos – 34th in 1.40,153
“It was my first day on this track and it was quite complicated. In the first practice session, things went as we expected, I was quite far behind, but we worked on a number of things that would improve the bike and my lines around this track. I tried to take advantage of these improvements and push harder in the afternoon. I managed to improve a little, but it was not enough to be where we want to be in the time sheets. Tomorrow, we will work hard in order to gain positions and to be higher up!”
More, from a press release issued by Marc VDS Racing Team:
Rabat impresses on revised Indy track
Indianapolis, USA – 8 August 2014: The Marc VDS Racing Team’s Moto2 World Championship leader Tito Rabat made an impressive return to action after the three-week summer break, finishing third quickest on the opening day of practice at the historic Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
The Spaniard was quickly up to speed on a modified, faster layout that also features new asphalt to set a personal best time of 1.37.697 that left him less than 0.2s off Dominique Aegerter’s fastest pace.
The second half of the 2014 World Championship commenced in challenging circumstances for Mika Kallio, who ended 11th after encountering front and rear grip issues in this afternoon’s second practice session.
Spaniard Jorge Navarro enjoyed an encouraging if somewhat challenging Moto3 debut with the Marc VDS Racing Team to finish 22nd quickest on the timesheets.
Rain disruptions in both sessions didn’t make the challenge of adapting to a new team, bike or circuit any easier but he acquitted himself well to finish just 0.3s outside of the top 20.
Tito Rabat // 3rd //1.37.697
“I am satisfied to be inside the top three in both sessions today. I feel good on the bike after the summer break and I like the changes to the track. I like this track a lot and have had good success here, but the new layout and the new tarmac makes the track even more fun. The main focus today was to understand the grip of the new surface and it feels good, but we can still make some improvements before we make the tyre selection for the race.”
Mika Kallio // 11th // 1.38.353
“I’ve never liked this track so it was the difficult day I expected. Even though the new surface is a big improvement compared to the past, I had some issues with the tyres today. I saved the soft tyres for this afternoon’s session and at the beginning I was very fast and challenging for the top three. But after six laps something happened with the rear tyre. It started to vibrate a lot and nothing we did with the set-up changed it. It got worse and it was jumping going into the corner and suddenly I was a second slower. We need to analyse this problem and understand why we destroyed the tyre. I am running the same tyres as Tito and his look really good and mine are finished.”
Jorge Navarro // 22nd // 1.44.576
“Today was a fantastic day for me to make my debut with the Marc VDS Racing team. It is such a high level team and I really enjoyed working with the crew. Everything is new with the team, the bike and the track but I am satisfied with my performance given the conditions were not ideal in both sessions with the rain. If we can improve braking and corner entry to give me more confidence I am sure I can make a good step tomorrow.”
More, from a press release issued by AGT Rea Racing:
Home Round for AGT REA Racing kicks off at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway
AGT REA Racing made their debut appearance at the newly modified Indianapolis Motor Speedway with Gino Rea on Friday. Although it was Rea’s second outing at the infamous ‘Brickyard’, having competed for Gresini Honda in Moto2 in 2012, he had to adapt to the changes made to five corners on the circuit and the new tarmac.
Adjusting quickly, Rea improved in all three runs in the first free practice session however dropped down the order because a new tyre was not used. In the afternoon session, the team encountered severe chatter problems as Gino Rea explains:
“We didn’t make the progress we needed to make in the second session, mainly because of a chatter issue which came on when we changed tyres after my first run. When the session got red flagged we made a change to the suspension, but the chatter remained the same. It looks like it was a tyre issue so hopefully we can get that worked out and try to continue to work on the chassis settings. I did my best lap with the chatter at the end so we should have room to improve even with the current settings. I’m giving it everything and I really want to be in a higher position especially at American Green Technology’s home race so I hope we can come up with a solution to improve tomorrow.”
Concluding Friday’s free practice sessions two seconds from the front, AGT REA Racing are out to close the gap in the third and final free practice and in the qualifying practice tomorrow afternoon. The only American team in the MotoGP paddock welcome their second ‘home’ race of the season following the Austin Grand Prix, with Indiana being the home state of their title sponsor American Green Technology.
The Moto2 qualifying practice takes place tomorrow at 15.05 local time at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Tune in to AGT REA Racing’s Facebook www.facebook.com/AGTREARACING and Twitter @AGT_REA_Racing for updates throughout the weekend.