‘El Pescao’ admits tough day at Sepang
SEPANG: It was a hard day for Hafizh Syahrin Abdullah at the Sepang International Circuit (SIC) as he struggled to record a good lap time which saw him ending the two free practice sessions in 18th place yesterday.
The Monster Yamaha Tech 3 rider, nicknamed ‘ El Pescao’, clocked two minutes and 01.419s in the first free practice session but couldn’t improve the time in the second session when he only managed to clock 2: 01.894s which left him almost one second behind his closest rival for best rookie title, Franco Morbidelli of Honda.
“It’s not an easy day for me in the home GP (Grand Prix).
“We expect that we can improve directly from FP1, but I don’t know what had happened.
“But this situation sometimes happen to all riders who expect they can improve at their favourite track. But I hope we can make a big step tomorrow because I do believe in myself and my team. Today is not our day and we will push harder tomorrow,” he told reporters.
Two rookie riders – Japanese Takaaki Nakagami of LCR Honda Idemitsu and the Italian, Morbidelli stood in 13th and 14th places respectively, in the combined free practice time.
The 25-year- old admitted that he confronted difficulty with the bike’s setting especially on tyre selection but hailed the new winglets as it played a big role in providing downforce on the front wheel as well giving a great impact on his riding.
Hafizh was already fired up for the qualifying round todayto start the race tomorrow in the best position.
“I wil l try to make a big improvement, and we’re looking to set one second faster in tomorrow’s round,” he said.
Meanwhile, five- time world champion Jorge Lorenzo of Ducati will be back on the track this weekend after missing the race in Thailand, Japan and Australia due to injury from a heavy crash in Buriram.
According to the of f icial MotoGP website, www. motogp. com, Lorenzo was given the nod by Sepang International Circuit doctors to compete.