Leon Camier makes swift adaptation to MotoGP

2014-08-11 06:24
DRIVE M7 Aspar rider produces incredible performance to qualify sixteenth for his premier-class debut





ASPARGPINDY2014_41 ASPARGPINDY2014_42 ASPARGPINDY2014_43 ASPARGPINDY2014_44 ASPARGPINDY2014_45 ASPARGPINDY2014_46 ASPARGPINDY2014_47 ASPARGPINDY2014_48 ASPARGPINDY2014_49 ASPARGPINDY2014_50
Qualifying practice at Indianapolis saw two Englishmen (Redding and Crutchlow) progress from Q1 to Q2, when two Spaniards took over at the top of the timesheets as Marc Márquez overhauled Jorge Lorenzo for pole position. The reigning World Champion and runaway series leader gave Andrea Dovizioso a crucial tow on his final lap, allowing the Italian to edge out the unfortunate Lorenzo to the outside of the front row in third place, with Rossi and Pedrosa also outside contenders to deny Márquez his tenth straight win on Sunday.

It is rare for any rider to improve their lap times by six full seconds in just one day but that's what happened to Nicky Hayden's replacement in the DRIVE M7 Aspar Team today. Leon Camier has been the surprise package of the weekend so far, improving in every session during his first outing on a MotoGP bike to the point that he qualified sixth fastest in Q1, sealing sixteenth place on the grid for his premier-class debut. On the other side of the DRIVE M7 Aspar garage his team-mate Hiroshi Aoyama had a less satisfying day today, the Japanese rider citing a lack of traction and difficulty in turning for his disappointing 18th place on the grid.



16th Leon Camier 1.33.747: “I'm really happy today because we made a big step forward and I really enjoyed myself on the bike. We made a clear plan yesterday, which was to make the bike as easy for me to ride as possible. Everything is new to me so I have to learn as much as I possibly can this weekend. You can tell that this is an experienced team because they are able to help me go faster every time I go out and make the bike more and more comfortable for me to ride, Thanks to the hard work of the mechanics I am adapting quite quickly to the bike but I still have a lot to learn, such as the limits of the tyres and the suspension. We performed well today but the hardest part is still to come. Sometimes when you start out from scratch it is easy to make quick progress but you get to a certain point and things slow down. Anyway, I am really looking forward to tomorrow. It's too soon to predict a result, the goal for me is to get some more laps under my belt and learn as much as I can. I am sure that in the race I'll learn more than the rest of the weekend put together.”



18th Hiroshi Aoyama 1.33.948: “I felt comfortable on the bike this morning but in the afternoon my feeling changed and I wasn't confident for qualifying. We struggled for traction, I couldn't get the bike to turn and that limited us. With no feeling for the bike I couldn't ride it with conviction and we have qualified further back than we would like. We have to look at the positives, we still have a session to improve the set-up tomorrow and iron out the problems that we had today.”

Source: AsparTeam

Click here to visit our forums to discuss this story