Team QMMF rider Anthony West continued to work on a new set-up for his Moriwaki prototype racer on the second day of practice for the Portugal Grand Prix, but made a step into the wrong direction during qualifying and had to settle for 26th place on the starting grid. For the race tomorrow, the 30-year-old Australian will go this one step backwards, but will maintain the higher chassis position that helped him to do competitive lap times in the free practice sessions.
Team-mate Elena Rosell battled hard and managed to further improve her lap time at her first Grand Prix on the difficult Estoril circuit, but still holds 31st position on the starting grid. The main aim of the only female rider in Grand Prix racing is to finish the race tomorrow and to gain as much experience as possible.
“Anthony is putting in the maximum effort to get the maximum out of the bike, and his analysis of the situation is correct. Moriwaki promised us that we are going to have the new bike for the next race at Le Mans and we are very happy with that. Anthony is a great rider who pushes hard and who he is determined to achieve some strong results this year. We are working together side by side and he has our maximum support. Together, we will be successful for sure”, said FIM vice president and QMMF team owner Nasser Khalifa Al Attiyah. “Elena competes for the first time at a Grand Prix here at Estoril and she needs time to learn this circuit and all the other tracks in the championship calendar. The most important thing for her is to finish the races and to gain race experience. It was a pity that she crashed out of the last race at Jerez and I hope she’ll be able to make it to the chequered flag here at Estoril. She has the potential to be very competitive and the fact that she has such an experienced rider as a team-mate will help her to get the knowledge she needs!”
Anthony West
“I am not as happy than I was yesterday or this morning. This morning it was easy to do a lap time of 1.42,6 minutes and I did 1.42’s quite consistently. Now in qualifying it was nearly impossible to do 1.43’s because I had to fight so much with the bike. We have made radical changes all weekend long in order to get the best out of the bike here at Estoril, and now we made another small change with the springs and it threw the bike completely out of balance. I was sitting on the back wheel again and I couldn’t open the throttle on the corner exits. It’s a small thing but with big consequences. If you go a little bit the wrong direction, the bike doesn’t want to turn any more. Tomorrow, we are going back to the setting we had this morning and we will also try something that we had in the race in Jerez and that should also help to get more weight on the front. If we can do that, beating the other Moriwaki shouldn’t be a problem for me!”
Elena Rosell
“Qualifying is over and I brought the bike home in one piece. The other good thing is that we went faster by about half a second from session to session, so we are on the right track. My main problem is that the bike moves a lot when I open the throttle on the corner exit, and since I had this pre-season injury, right now I simply don’t have the physical strength that I had last year to control the bike. I couldn’t exercise for a month and a half, so even though I was able to repeat my best time several times, it was a very tiring qualifying session for me. Once I am back to full fitness, I will be able to go faster for sure. But considering it’s my first Grand Prix here at Estoril, things aren’t too bad!”
QMMF Racing Press Release
