Japanese rider Tetsuta Nagashima has had a tough first day at the first round of the Moto2 World Championship – but he’s looking ahead to gaining more experience on track during tomorrow’s sessions.
The 21-year-old spent time acclimatizing himself to the twists and turns of the 3.34-miles (5.380km) Doha circuit today, but suffered a crash in the early part of the second session. Although he was not hurt, the damage to the Team JiR Moto2 machine meant he had to sit out the rest of that session.
Gianluca Montiron - Team Principal
“We must be positive after today despite what happened as Tetsuta’s lap times were coming down and he did his best lap time so far but then tried to follow a group of more experienced riders and he missed his braking point and crashed out. This will happen – he’s a young rider, but sadly this compromised his session as it wasn’t possible to recover the bike. He will learn and realize it is best to be more prudent at the start of a session. Now the mechanics – who have a lot of experience – will rebuild the bike and share data with our young rider to give him yet more information to help him improve. This is the key here – experience – young riders like Tetsuta need time to develop, so let’s see what happens tomorrow.”
Tetsuta Nagashima - Rider
Best lap: 2m 05.388s
“I am so very disappointed to shorten my second session by crashing out on the fifth lap. Thankfully I wasn’t injured but due to the damage to my bike I couldn’t continue. This is such a big shame as I was really getting a positive feeling with the bike and was feeling that I could push that little bit harder. As it was, I was very disappointed to sit out most of that second session. I will learn from this. Still, I am positive for tomorrow and I will now check the data and look at settings tomorrow to improve my lap times.”
JiR Moto2 Press Release
