Hafizh on song in Motegi rain
HAFIZH Syahrin Abdullah was right at home in wet conditions at the Japan Motorcycle Grand Prix when he notched impressive lap times in the opening practice sessions yesterday.
The Petronas Raceline rider finished the first practice session (FP1) at the Twin Ring Motegi circuit in third place with a time of two minutes and 6.201 seconds, and backed it up with an equally impressive 2:06.629s for sixth in FP2.
Hafizh, who is currently 11th in the overall standings on 66 points, said: “The track was tricky as it was raining. It was rather wet but there was still some grip, which was good.”
“The rain persisted in the afternoon, which made it a very wet FP2. I just kept pushing as much as I could. I had to be careful not to go beyond the limit.
“The bike felt great on the track, so now we just need to push on and stay focused on our goals,” said Hafizh.
Idemitsu Honda Team Asia’s Khairul Idham Pawi was, however, off the pace, managing 31st (2:09.836s) in FP1 and 24th ( 2:08.107s) in FP2.
In Moto3, Adam Norrodin was also impressive in FP1 in 2:11.105s for seventh but settled for 26th after suffering a crash in FP2 (2:14.298s).
“We had a good first session and made a lot of progress.
“In FP2, the conditions were quite different.
“I could feel straight away that the grip was less than before,” he said.
Adam’s teammate Ayumu Sasaki took 11th (2:11.526s) and 20th (2:13.645s) in FP1 and FP2, respectively.