The 2009 World Motorcycling Championship started tonight in Qatar with the appearance of the riders in the 125cc category, the first riders to go out onto the track of Losail. At 20:30 Friday the young 125cc riders finished the first free practice session – this year the big novelty is just one practice session on the Friday before a race – which lasted 40 minutes. In this time the four Repsol riders in the category – Marc Márquez & Cameron Beaubier with KTM, and Esteve Rabat & Scott Redding on Aprilias – have made progress with the setups on their bikes.
Marc Márquez was the fastest of the four Repsol riders. Emilio Alzamora`s pupil, who did not race at this circuit last year after an injury in Jerez during the winter tests, had his first contact with the Losail circuit at the beginning of this week. His lack of knowledge of the circuit did not stop him from setting the fourth best time of the day though, but he will have to continue working on the setup he would like on his KTM 125 FRR so as to lower his times and get closer to his compatriot Julián Simón who was the fastest in the session.
Scott Redding on his Aprilia 125 RSA also had a good start to the practice, setting the eleventh fastest time at the end of the forty minute session. His teammate in the Team Blusens, Esteve Rabat, was thirteenth, although this is because the setup on the front wheel did not allow him to improve his times. The American Cameron Beaubier, injured last Tuesday in the practice in Qatar for the riders in 125cc & 250cc, was twenty-second. After dislocating his right shoulder when he fell a few days ago, Beaubier did only nine laps of the track in Qatar. Six minutes before the end he preferred to go to the pits and stop for today so that he did not overload his shoulder.
Marc Márquez, 2’09.266 seg, 15 vueltas, 81 Km. >> Audio
“Today things went well and I think that a fourth position is a good way to begin, although Julián [Simón] was very fast. The track was a bit slippery and it was difficult to ride fast, and at the same time it was quite windy. But this is just the free practice; tomorrow we have qualifying and I am sure that the times will fall quite a bit. You could see all that we had done in the pre-season, which was a lot, and for me and the team we are looking forward to the race and can`t wait to start.”
Esteve Rabat, 2’10.656 seg,15 vueltas, 81 Km. >> Audio
“My first contact was a bit strange because we had to “clean the track”, this is because of the three categories we were the first ones out on the track and it was very dirty. We only had 40 minutes, in a single session, and a lot of work to do. I concentrated on riding the bike and did not push it a too much. Regarding the chassis, we have improved a lot compared to last Monday and Tuesday, when we had a lot of problems with the rear wheel, but the front wheel did not work so well. Tomorrow we will try to find a compromise as we are on the right lines but we just have to round things off.”
Scott Redding, 2’10.494 seg, 14 vueltas, 75 Km. >> Audio
“Things did not go too bad. The chassis worked well, but we had some engine problems. I am not too worried because we have found a solution for tomorrow. The track conditions were not so good; yesterday there was a strong wind and it put a lot of sand on the track, that is why the times were not very fast overall. I was eleventh, which is not too bad, but we will see what happens tomorrow. It was strange waiting such a long time during the day to ride for just 40 minutes in the dark. To be sincere I think that two sessions would be better because if we have problemis one you can work on the bike to have it ready in the next one even though they sessions may be shorter.”
Cameron Beaubier, 2’13.138 seg, 9 vueltas, 48 Km. >> Audio
“Things did not go too well because I had a fall on Tuesday and I am still not totally recovered. The doctors told me I could try riding but I only rode to see how I felt on the bike, see what my sensations were and how well I could ride. At the beginning I felt fine but when I went out the second time it was more difficult. I hope that tomorrow and on Sunday things go better for us.”
