FIM Moto2 World Championship Motegi, Japan September 30 Free Practice Two Results (all using Honda engines and Dunlop tires): 1. Thomas LUTHI, Switzerland (SUTER), 1:53.002 2. Stefan BRADL, Germany (KALEX), 1:53.182 3. Yuki TAKAHASHI, Japan (MORIWAKI), 1:53.354 4. Dominique AEGERTER, Switzerland (SUTER), 1:53.465 5. Pol ESPARGARO, Spain (FTR), 1:53.476 6. Bradley SMITH, Great Britain (TECH 3), 1:53.533 7. Esteve RABAT, Spain (FTR), 1:53.583 8. Marc MARQUEZ, Spain (SUTER), 1:53.600 9. Mika KALLIO, Finland (SUTER), 1:53.604 10. Aleix ESPARGARO, Spain (PONS KALEX), 1:53.813 11. Andrea IANNONE, Italy (SUTER), 1:53.943 12. Xavier SIMEON, Belgium (TECH 3), 1:53.948 13. Takaaki NAKAGAMI, Japan (SUTER), 1:53.953 14. Alex DE ANGELIS, San Marino (MOTOBI), 1:53.965 15. Scott REDDING, Great Britain (SUTER), 1:54.062 16. Michele PIRRO, Italy (MORIWAKI), 1:54.095 17. Yonny HERNANDEZ, Colombia (FTR), 1:54.142 18. Simone CORSI, Italy (FTR), 1:54.161 19. Jordi TORRES, Spain (SUTER), 1:54.180 20. Jules CLUZEL, France (SUTER), 1:54.358 21. Mattia PASINI, Italy (FTR), 1:54.377 22. Anthony WEST, Australia (MZ-RE HONDA), 1:54.397 23. Kenan SOFUOGLU, Turkey (SUTER), 1:54.482 24. Mike DI MEGLIO, France (TECH 3), 1:54.593 25. Ricard CARDUS, Spain (MORIWAKI), 1:54.602 26. Ratthapark WILAIROT, Thailand (FTR), 1:54.751 27. Axel PONS, Spain (PONS KALEX), 1:54.870 28. Santiago HERNANDEZ, Colombia (FTR), 1:54.878 29. Max NEUKIRCHNER, Germany (MZ-RE HONDA), 1:54.904 30. Randy KRUMMENACHER, Switzerland (KALEX), 1:54.930 31. Joan OLIVE, Spain (FTR), 1:54.974 32. Raffaele DE ROSA, Italy (SUTER), 1:55.083 33. Kenny NOYES, USA (FTR), 1:55.156 34. Tomoyoshi KOYAMA, Japan (TSR), 1:55.360 35. Valentin DEBISE, France (FTR), 1:56.199 36. Robertino PIETRI, Venezuela (SUTER), 1:56.311 37. Sergio GADEA, Spain (MORIWAKI), 1:56.852 38. Mashel AL NAIMI, Qatar (MORIWAKI), 1:57.167 More, from a press release issued by Marc VDS Racing Team: KALLIO MAKES CONFIDENT START IN JAPAN Mika Kallio made a confident start to preparations for the Twin Ring Motegi Moto2 race in Japan today, the Marc VDS Racing Team rider battling consistently for the top six in both practice sessions. Kallio ended the opening day in an encouraging ninth position, the Finnish rider taking full advantage of hot conditions to get in vital set-up work on his Suter MMXI machine ahead of Sunday’s 23-lap race. Working closely with his Marc VDS crew, Kallio was able to improve the turning performance of his Suter MMXI machine in the tight hairpins at the 4.801km circuit and a productive afternoon session saw him set a best time of 1.53.604. That was almost 0.7s faster than his pace in the first session and he was only 0.004s behind in-form Marc Marquez on the combined leaderboard and less than 0.2s away from fourth. British rider Scott Redding had to settle for 15th place on the timesheets after he encountered concentration issues as a result of a heavy cold he developed on the long flight from Europe to Tokyo earlier this week. The bug disrupted the 18-year-old’s sleep last night too but he still put in his maximum effort to evaluate the 2012 Suter MMXII chassis made available to the Marc VDS Racing squad this weekend. The combination of Redding’s weakened physical condition and a lack of rear grip meant he was unable to feel the benefits of the new frame, but he is confident with more set-up time that the chassis offers improved feedback compared to the 2011 version having set a best time of 1.54.062 today. Mika Kallio #36: 9th – 16 Laps – 1’53.604 “Today was a very positive start to the weekend and in both sessions I was comfortably inside the top 10 and the gap to the front is not so big. The good thing is that I definitely have something in reserve and I wasn’t pushing right at the limit today, so with a few small improvements to the bike, I am confident we can fight for the second row on the grid tomorrow. We got a lot of good information today but we need to wait and see what happens overnight with the weather. Some people said it could rain in the night and that will definitely have an impact on grip levels. The forecast is for conditions to be a bit cooler too, so we need to be prepared to make some changes to the set-up. One area we can improve is the turning in the slower corners but it is not a major issue. Today was the best start to a weekend we’ve made for a long time, so I’m confident we can build on this and have a good race on Sunday.” Scott Redding #45: 15th – 15 Laps – 1’54.062 “I haven’t been feeling great today at all. I’ve got a pretty bad cold from all the air conditioning on the plane. I just can’t concentrate for any length of time and I came in at the end of the session a lap early thinking I’d seen the chequered flag. But it was the two-minute board, so it was clear my mind wasn’t totally on the job. I’ll try and get some solid sleep tonight and come out all guns blazing tomorrow to try and get back up the front where we’ve been for the last three races. It is a shame I wasn’t at my best because we got the new 2012 Suter MMXII chassis to try, but it was hard to make a clear assessment. I had a lot of wheelspin today but I think that was more down to the tyres than anything else. With a bit more time to set the chassis up I’m sure we can feel the benefit and I know there is definitely more to come from myself.” Trevor Morris – Mika Kallio Crew Chief “That was just the start we were looking for from Mika because lapping inside the top 10 and close to the top six on the first day has given him a lot of confidence for the rest of the weekend. We didn’t really change the bike from the last race at Motorland Aragon and right from the first lap he said he had a good feeling. That meant he could just focus on building up his pace and getting into a good rhythm and he did a lot of good laps. We need to get the bike to turn a little bit better, particularly in Turns 9 and 10, where we lose most of our time. If the bike can turn a bit quicker it will help him fire the bike out of the corner earlier and not hurt his acceleration so much onto the straights. Mika has been in the top 10 twice in the last three races and based on today’s performance, that should be our minimum target on Sunday.” More, from a press release issued by QMMF Racing Team: Ricky Cardús tests new Moriwaki bike Al-Naimi in search for more corner speed QMMF Racing Team rider Ricky Cardús had an exciting first day at the Japanese Grand Prix, testing the new 2012 version of his Moriwaki chassis. The 24-year-old from Barcelona, Spain, made the best use of the first two free practice sessions, riding most of the time all by himself and collecting valuable impressions and data for the race set-up. On his final lap in the afternoon, he suffered a small crash with worn tyres under brakes, but walked away unhurt. Team-mate Mashel Al-Naimi also rode most of the two sessions without a tyre change and felt very comfortable with his bike, especially in the braking zones, but still looks for ways to get more confidence and more speed through the corners. Whereas Cardús holds 25th position, Al-Naimi is in 38th place so far. “At the last race in Aragón, Ricky tried an updated version of the 2011 frame and swingarm, but the bike he rides here at Motegi features the all-new chassis for 2012, even though it hasn’t been finalized in all the details”, said team coordinator Luis Solano. “Our philosophy is to have a new approach at each Grand Prix, and having this new bike is definitely a boost to his motivation and confidence!” Mashel Al-Naimi 38th in 1.57,167 “I did 36 laps with the soft tyre compound and didn’t come in for a tyre change at all. Despite the worn tyres, I felt good in the hard-braking zones, but I still need more confidence to flick the bike quickly and deeply into the corners. We changed a few things on the set-up, but I didn’t feel a big difference on the bike. Tomorrow we will try to do more things on the set-up side in order to improve my cornering. I hope to be able to make a good qualifying!” Ricky Cardús 25th in 1.54,602 “I was riding by myself most of the time, this morning and this afternoon, getting a feel for the new bike. We continued with a used tyre in the second session and I ended up doing 30 laps so it was quite worn. It’s for this reason that I am 25th in the classification if we had mounted new tyres, I could definitely have gone faster at the end of the session. But what’s more important is that I found a good rhythm with the new bike. On the last lap, I lost the front under brakes and had a little crash. It was my fault, because I kept pushing. Luckily, there was not too much damage!” More, from a press release JiR Moto2 Team: GP of Japan, first practice The 15th round of the World Championship has started today on the Motegi circuit, during the first free practice session all the riders suffered a lack of grip, but lap-after-lap the Tarmac had more rubber laid down and the situation improved during the afternoon’s session times which got much faster. The JiR Moto2 Team took the two sessions to work on different configuration of the rear suspension and running at least 29 laps with a single rear tyre, moreover our rider is improving communications with the technical group borrowed from technical partners TSR. It has been routine work that was needed to be done today, as the weather forecast for tomorrow could turn into rain. The best lap of 1’53.695s gives De Angelis the provisional 14th place with his MotoBI. Once the technical base has been decided, the two sessions tomorrow will be exploited to improve the single lap times, while thinking all the time of the race. Alex DeAngelis We did not make an extraordinary single lap time but we concentrated on understanding various things which was the best path for my MotoBI’s configuration. After testing three different set-ups for the rear shock we managed to define the right compromise that will be the base to work on for further improvements. Now we’ll analyze some data we collected to find out the reason of a problem that afflicted me on almost the entire track, once this aspect will be fixed my times will be faster.