SASAKI AND NORRODIN TAKE TOP TWELVE ON DAY ONE AT MOTEGI

2017-10-13 07:14
Day one on track at Twin Ring Motegi saw SIC Racing Team riders Adam Norrodin and Ayumu Sasaki test the wet conditions to their limits, concluding practice in 8th [Adam] and 12th [Ayumu] place overall.

#7 ADAM NORRODIN

“I’m very happy to be back at Motegi; I have a really good feeling with this track. From the start I have felt very focussed to get a good result here.
The weather has not been so great today with a lot of rain but I just concentrated on doing laps alone and finding my rhythm. We had a good first session and made a lot of progress. I kept pushing myself more to see how far I could go and in the end we finished the session 7th.
In FP2 the conditions were quite different although it was still wet and I could feel straight away that the grip was less than before. I tried to stay calm but then in the last corner I made a mistake; I took it too tight and crashed in Turn 14. My mechanics did an excellent job repairing my bike and getting me back out on track for the remaining ten minutes. Unfortunately this wasn’t long enough to make a significant improvement in my lap time but I was still able to build my confidence back up and make a solid plan for the qualifying tomorrow.”

#71 AYUMU SASAKI

“In FP1 we had quite a good feeling on the bike. At the beginning we were not so fast but we continued to work on our set-up and in the end we finished 11th. We had a good pace, so I was happy.
FP2 felt very different and I struggled to get back up to speed. I didn’t have the same feeling as I had in FP1, I don’t know why, so I just took things step by step. We tried a new tyre but I still wasn’t able to improve. I continued to keep pushing a little but then on the lap that I crashed I was trying to catch a rider who just passed me and I lost the front. This was disappointing but overall we are 12th today. The bike is working well and I feel confident ahead of the qualifying tomorrow.”

Source: SIC Racing Team

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