First day of practice for Yuki Takahashi
Yuki Takahashi enjoyed a good morning practice session in the wet on his JiR Team Scot Honda and made further improvements in the dry afternoon session. Low temperatures at the Estoril circuit affected all riders’ performances throughout the day and Takahashi was one of the riders who suffered a crash as a result of the cold conditions. Because of his accident, Yuki lost some valuable qualifying time but his team still managed to find a good setting for the bike and are optimistic about tomorrow’s second qualifying session.
Gianni Berti – Technical Coordinator, JiR Team Scot
“Yuki’s crash in the afternoon partly compromised his good result in the morning so we didn’t end up in a favourable position in qualifying. However, we did find a good choice of tyres which we will try again tomorrow to help us improve our qualifying position. Thankfully, Yuki didn’t suffer any injuries in his crash and he is very motivated so I think we can end tomorrow’s session with a good result.”
Yuki Takahashi – Rider, JiR Team Scot 250GP
HONDA RS250RW
Best time: 11th – 1’42”769
“This morning we did a few laps with full wet tyres and then used slicks as the track dried out. I felt comfortable initially but then started to lose grip towards the end of the session. Even so, it was good to get experience in different conditions. In the afternoon, with a dry track, we used a harder compound of tyre but after only three laps I crashed in a left-hand corner because my tyres were still cold. Estoril circuit does not have many left-hand corners so the tyres need more time to heat up and this caught me out. I lost a lot of track time because of my crash and also had to change to my number two bike. Tomorrow I hope to improve my times but I am also hoping for sunny weather!”
Yutaka Hirano – Chief Technician, JiR Team Scot
“We practiced with different tyre compounds and have found a good solution for tomorrow. That will allow us to concentrate on the front suspension and gearbox settings. The carburetion didn’t give us any problems but we can still improve in this area. I think that at this track we can exploit the full potential of the Honda so we are looking forward to the race.”
Grand Prix of Qatar Spain – First practice
1) Marco Simoncelli Gilera1’41”427
2) Alex DebonAprilia1’41”474
3) Mika KallioKTM1’41”593
4) Alvaro BautistaAprilia1’41”803
5) Mattia PasiniAprilia1’41”804
11) Yuki TakahashiHonda1’42”769
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