Moto2

Practice Crash Blights Opening Day For Rea

2 Mins read
Gino Rea - Photo Credit: Gresini Honda

Gino Rea - Photo Credit: Gresini Honda

 

Gino Rea had a difficult opening day in Moto2 after crashing during the second free practice in Qatar. The Briton lost control of his Moriwaki at the final corner of the Losail circuit on his second flying lap of FP2 and saw set-up time greatly reduced.

Rea rued the error which contributed to him ending the day in 27th and knows he was ground to make up in tomorrow's third practice session.

“The first session was quite positive. Unfortunately we went a little bit in the wrong direction after the crash so that held us back a little bit because we just didn’t have the time to make the adjustments we needed to make so I couldn’t improve on my time. It is disappointing because after the first session because we knew where we needed to improve so I’m sorry to the team for making them work harder repairing the bike but I think once we sit down and look at the data we will be able to come back a lot stronger tomorrow.”

Teammate Ratthapark Wilairot was 21st at the end of the day and he had a troublesome day with a general lack of grip limiting his progress.

“We tried many things on the bike tonight but I had a problem on the rear that we struggled to solve. We also had a problem with vibration on the front that we have improved but the rear is still sliding a lot. We have to check the data but we already have some ideas to improve it with some changes to the rear shock and rear swingarm, so hopefully I can do much better tomorrow.”

Gresini Honda Moto2 team manager Fausto Gresini thinks both riders have the potential to be much higher in the running order and is predicting an improvement tomorrow.

“Unfortunately in Moto2 we are some way down on the time sheets at the moment. We seem to have improved a little on the Jerez test but we still have a lot of work to do tomorrow to find the best way to improve the bike. Rea’s night wasn’t made easier by the crash and overall it wasn’t a particularly pleasing way to make his debut. I think Wilairot has more to give but we have to all work together to improve his situation, which is currently not satisfactory. We will hopefully improve tomorrow because I believe we have the potential and we’ll be trying our best.”

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