Like fish out of water
Hafizh to start from the back after difficult qualifying
HAFIZH Syahrin Abdullah is not giving up hope for a rousing finish at the Shell Malaysia Motorcycle Grand Prix race after struggling with bike handling issues during a wet qualifying session.
The Monster Yamaha Tech3 rider lowered his best time from Friday’s practice by 0.861 seconds and climbed up the order in the fourth and final practice session yesterday.
However, he struggled to find his confidence in the wet qualifying session and would start from the back of the grid after posting the 23rd fastest time of 2:16.825.
Hafizh is the only rider from this year’s premier class grid who has not tested at Sepang as he only got his break to become the first Malaysian rider to compete in MotoGP after German Jonas Folger pulled out due to illness.
He then tested a MotoGP bike for the first time in Buriram, Thailand, in February.
He is starting from the eighth row of the grid but is keeping his fingers crossed to give the 100,000-strong crowd at Sepang something to cheer about today.
“I just feel really sorry for the team, because I couldn’t do my best. I felt a lot of spinning from the bike and I’m disappointed myself,” said Hafizh.
“Anyway, I will try my best for the race tomorrow (today), which will be totally different.
“Now we start to understand which tyre we need to use. I just want to enjoy it and do my best. I hope to give my best to all my supporters.
“I did not have any experience in the full wet conditions and it takes time to understand it. I’ll fight,” said Hafizh, who finished sixth in the Moto2 race at Sepang last year.
Petronas Sprinta Racing rider Adam Norrodin, who was competing with a shoulder injury and a torn ligament in his knee, had a rough day.
The 20-year-old was forced to settle for 18th on the grid as traffic held him back in Moto3 qualifying.
The 20-year-old struggled to set a competitive time and had to be satisfied with 2:13.089.
And his misery did not end there as Adam was relegated to start the race from the pitlane for today’s race.
The FIM stewards ruled that he was deemed to be riding too slow (third offence) in qualifying and had endangered the lives of other competitors.
Adam could not hide his disappointment. “I’m very disappointed, in fact, I have never felt this disappointed before.
“I had good pace in the wet today as I did previously but overall I felt I was quite good as well in the dry. I felt confident going into qualifying but it was not easy, especially in the last lap where I had a few problems with some other riders (traffic),” said Adam.
“There is not much I can do about it except to focus on the race tomorrow (today), try and have a good start and most importantly try to stay with the first group,” said Adam, who sustained the injuries in a crash during the Motegi round last month but is holding off surgery until after the final round in Valencia later this month.