FIM Moto2 World Championship Catalunya, Spain June 3 Free Practice Two Results (all using Honda engines and Dunlop tires): 1. Simone CORSI, Italy (FTR), 1:47.373 2. Thomas LUTHI, Switzerland (SUTER), 1:47.494 3. Alex DE ANGELIS, San Marino (MOTOBI), 1:47.513 4. Yuki TAKAHASHI, Japan (MORIWAKI), 1:47.549 5. Bradley SMITH, Great Britain (TECH 3), 1:47.594 6. Stefan BRADL, Germany (KALEX), 1:47.606 7. Mika KALLIO, Finland (SUTER), 1:47.621 8. Aleix ESPARGARO, Spain (PONS KALEX), 1:47.739 9. Scott REDDING, Great Britain (SUTER), 1:47.786 10. Michele PIRRO, Italy (MORIWAKI), 1:47.843 11. Marc MARQUEZ, Spain (SUTER), 1:47.857 12. Julian SIMON, Spain (SUTER), 1:47.878 13. Jules CLUZEL, France (SUTER), 1:47.942 14. Pol ESPARGARO, Spain (FTR), 1:48.059 15. Randy KRUMMENACHER, Switzerland (KALEX), 1:48.109 16. Dominique AEGERTER, Switzerland (SUTER), 1:48.186 17. Kenan SOFUOGLU, Turkey (SUTER), 1:48.215 18. Javier FORES, Spain (SUTER), 1:48.382 19. Yonny HERNANDEZ, Colombia (FTR), 1:48.449 20. Mattia PASINI, Italy (FTR), 1:48.545 21. Xavier SIMEON, Belgium (TECH 3), 1:48.569 22. Axel PONS, Spain (PONS KALEX), 1:48.588 23. Alex BALDOLINI, Italy (SUTER), 1:48.632 24. Andrea IANNONE, Italy (SUTER), 1:48.656 25. Ratthapark WILAIROT, Thailand (FTR), 1:48.689 26. Max NEUKIRCHNER, Germany (MZ-RE HONDA), 1:48.774 27. Ricard CARDUS, Spain (MORIWAKI), 1:48.851 28. Esteve RABAT, Spain (FTR), 1:48.858 29. Mike DI MEGLIO, France (TECH 3), 1:48.953 30. Kenny NOYES, USA (FTR), 1:49.103 31. Kev COGHLAN, Great Britain (FTR), 1:49.218 32. Carmelo MORALES, Spain (MORIWAKI), 1:49.304 33. Anthony WEST, Australia (MZ-RE HONDA), 1:49.447 34. Robertino PIETRI, Venezuela (SUTER), 1:49.579 35. Claudio CORTI, Italy (SUTER), 1:49.913 36. Santiago HERNANDEZ, Colombia (FTR), 1:50.184 37. Valentin DEBISE, France (FTR), 1:50.651 38. Mashel AL NAIMI, Qatar (MORIWAKI), 1:50.724 More, from a press release issued by Marc VDS Racing: MARC VDS RACING TEAM OFF TO A FAST START IN CATALUNYA The fifth round of the 2011 Moto2 World Championship started in brilliant fashion for the Marc VDS Racing Team today, with Mika Kallio and Scott Redding consistently challenging for a top six position during the opening day of practice at the Catalunya circuit. Kallio produced arguably his best performance of the campaign so far, the Finnish rider taking maximum advantage of a revised geometry setting on his Suter MMXI machine to set the seventh best time on the combined timesheets. Kallio took his time to adapt to the new set-up this morning when he finished in a respectable 19th place. But he was confident of major improvements with more time on the new setting and he delivered in emphatic fashion, a time of 1.47.621 pushing the Finn into the top three at one stage of this afternoon’s session. The new setting, which placed more weight on the rear of his Suter MMXI machine, enabled Kallio to ride more to his preferred style and he knocked nearly 1.2s off his best time from this morning. Kallio is now confident that he can challenge for a top six finish in Sunday’s 23-lap race. The Moto2 field managed to avoid the intermittent showers that fell during the opening day of practice, though grip levels were definitely affected with some riders unable to improve their times from this morning. Redding though was able to lap marginally quicker in the second session, the British rider setting a quickest time of 1.47.786 to finish ninth. Redding was confident he could have gone quicker but a collision with Simone Corsi damaged his clutch lever and cost him valuable time on track. This weekend’s Catalunya race is the start of the most intensive phase of the 2011 Moto2 World Championship, with five races in the next seven weeks before the summer sojourn. Mika Kallio #36 – 1.47.621 – 36 laps – 7th position “I think this is the first time this season I’ve been smiling and it is a much better feeling than the previous races when it has been quite difficult. Right from the start I had more confidence with the bike. During the break after Le Mans I spoke a lot with my crew chief Trevor about what we needed to change and it definitely worked. The bike now has more weight on the rear and this is how I’ve always preferred to have the set-up all through my career. This is better for my style and today it felt more normal and natural for me to use my strong points like braking really late and aggressive. This is only the first step but it was a positive start with this revised set-up and to be less than 0.3s away from the fastest time is much more where we expect to be. The important thing is now to keep the bike like this and just make only small adjustments to improve our pace. The changes we made also helped with my position on the bike. Before I felt like I was I was crawling all over the front of the bike, but now I’m in a more natural position. We might have sacrificed a bit of turning because this new setting makes the front feel a bit more lazy, but the benefit is much greater in other areas and I can work on the turning myself.” Scott Redding #45 – 1.47.786 – 33 laps – 9th position “Today was a good start for us and gave us a lot of optimism for the rest of the weekend. I was fast immediately and finished fifth quickest this morning and I felt very confident with the bike. I used the same front tyre all day today because feeling with the front-end is an area where I’ve struggled a couple of times this year. We wanted to get in a lot of laps to get a good feeling with the front, but by the end of the second session the performance had dropped off quite a bit as you’d expect. I lost a bit of time too in an incident with Corsi. I’m not sure what he was doing but I was way off line and keeping out of the way and he sat up into me and it snapped the clutch lever off the bracket. My guys worked really fast to sort it and we put in a new rear tyre that I didn’t like to run it with the old front tyre and I was still pretty fast. The front was pushing a bit at the end and on my last lap I had a couple of moments so decided to back off. We just need to see what the weather is going to do for the rest of the weekend. It was dry this afternoon but the track was quite dirty but I felt pretty good and am confident I can get my season up and running on Sunday.” Trevor Morris – Mika Kallio Crew Chief “Mika has needed a bit more time to adjust to the Moto2 bike after two years with a completely different machine in MotoGP. We didn’t expect him to take quite as long as he has to show the potential we know he has, but there have been a lot of disruptions with the weather this year. And that has not really allowed him to get his rhythm going so he can tell us what we need to change to the bike to make him go faster. We just needed one complete Grand Prix for him to have no issues and with no other interruptions for him to work on the bike, rather than the Team working on the bike. We’ve just been trying to build his confidence so he can ride at a level we know he can and today he showed that. We spoke a lot after Le Mans and exchanged a lot of e-mails and the changes to put more weight on the rear has really helped. All credit to Mika because he has worked unbelievably hard to put things right. Today he was much happier with the weight transfer being much slower. Before the bike was pitching weight to the front too quickly, whereas now its more manageable for him so he can understand more what the bike is doing underneath him. We were in the top three at one stage and it would have been nice to stay there, but if we can keep improving then there is no reason why he can’t be challenging at the front. A top 10 is definitely a realistic target.” More, from a press release issued by QMMF Racing Team: Al Naimi finds more top-speed with new fairing Cardús sets high hopes on new riding style QMMF Racing Team riders Mashel Al Naimi and Ricky Cardús had a busy first day of practice for the Catalunya Grand Prix, with valuable experiences that will boost their performances in the future. 27-year-old Al Naimi, the only Grand Prix rider from Qatar, was happy with the new fairings both riders received for their Moriwaki prototypes. He noted an improvement in top-speed and a more comfortable ride altogether, even though he is still struggling with other aspects of the set-up for the fast and flowing Montmelo race track and settled for 38th position so far. His team-mate from Barcelona, 23-year-old Ricky Cardús, took a more radical approach and changed his riding style entirely, trying to brake a little earlier and in return to find smoother and faster lines through and out of the corners. Even though Cardús needs more time to perfect his new style and to find the right bike settings, the new approach is considered a move in the right direction. Therefore, Cardús is sure to improve on his 26th place and to get a good starting position for his home Grand Prix. “Even though the weather conditions weren’t very good today, we are on track and learned a lot today”, said team manager Luis Solano. “Our aim now is to concentrate on good grid positions for both our riders. It’s crucial to put all efforts in for a really fast qualifying lap!” Mashel Al Naimi (38th in 1.50,724) “I am still trying to understand the bike on this track, but so far, it has been difficult for me to find a good setting. We changed tyre compounds on the rear, but I hardly felt a difference between the hard and the soft compound, so we have to change the suspension settings tomorrow in order to find out what’s going on. I also tried our new fairing today which was an instant improvement. I feel better at high speeds and even though we haven’t made data comparisons yet, it feels as if I’m going faster now. So far, I was always one of the last five in terms of top-speed. I hope we can confirm our improvements in this area!” Ricky Cardús (26th in 1.48,711) “Things went better for me in the morning than in the afternoon. In the second session, I tried a completely new riding style. I have to brake a little earlier and keep the momentum of the bike going through the turns. There is no doubt that this will pay off in the long run, but it’s work in progress and we still need time. I am 27th now, which is no reason to get nervous: I know exactly what to do, I just need to adapt and to find the right settings for this new style. It’s a project for the future!” More, from a press release issued by JiR Moto2 Team: GP of Catalunya free practice: improvements for Alex De Angelis Today was the first day of free practice at the Montmelo circuit ahead of the Catalunya GP scheduled for this Sunday. The JiR Team arrived in Spain with the best intentions and during the day they have already made some important steps forward on the development of Alex De Angelis’ official MotoBI machine. This morning’s first session relegated the San Marino rider beyond twentieth position, but gave important insights to work on to the technicians led by Pietro Caprara, who have spent the break between the two sessions to implement some major changes to the bike. These have proved effective, so that De Angelis was found to be one of the riders who improved his performance the most over the previous session. For him, the first day ends with provisional third place with a best lap of 1’47 .513, just 140 milliseconds from the provisional leader Simone Corsi. Alex DeAngelis The day started badly, I struggled to find confidence and could not do better than 26th place. But I still managed to obtain important information from the bike that I put at the disposal of the technicians, with whom we have decided to implement substantial changes and vary the geometry and weight distribution of the bike. The guys did an excellent job between the two sessions and I went out for the second practice with a very different MotoBI that gave me great confidence now allowing me to push harder, so much that I cut almost two seconds from the time of this morning and I’m now third less than two tenths from Corsi. So the day can be considered very positive, but the work is not finished: we found the path that seems right but we have to finalize the set-up, tomorrow to consolidate our performance and I’ll try to do a good qualifying so to be ready for the race. We are also hoping that the weather will let us run in the dry as it did today.