Leon Camier admitted he didn’t feel as comfortable on the Suzuki GSX-R1000 as he had in pre-season testing after the weather conditions worked against him. The Briton was among the fastest riders earlier in the week and although finished Friday Qualifying an excellent fourth, the change of wind direction left him short of where he wanted to be.
“I never felt quite as comfortable out there today as I did in the tests, the conditions had changed quite a bit – the wind was in a different direction and it was a bit hotter. I struggled to get in one quick lap, but the quickest one that I did achieve I managed to do three or four of them in a row. If I could have put together a perfect lap I’m sure I could have been right up there and a good step quicker. All-in-all it’s not too bad, but with the change of conditions again it has altered the way the bike works and feels, so we’ve got to be really understanding of that come race-day. Also for one lap we need to understand exactly what we need to do for the conditions and how to manage it to get a good lap and grid position for Sunday.”
Fixi Crescent Suzuki teammate Jules Cluzel heads into tomorrow’s second session outside the Superpole spots and accepts the pressure is on tomorrow morning in QP2.
“I’m not so happy, because I am lower than where I wanted to be after first qualifying and we also lost a bit of time at the end due to a technical issue. We now have only tomorrow morning to try to improve things and get in the top-15 for Superpole. It would be a good experience for me to be in Superpole, because I have never tried a qualifying tyre, so I am looking to do this. We lost something during the crash the other day, because my best lap time today was not as fast as the one I did on my second exit during the first day of the test, but we have time tomorrow to improve and make sure we’re ready for the first races of the year.”
