HASLAM AND TORRES FIFTH AND SIXTH, BOTH WORKING ON THE SETTINGS FOR THEIR RSV4 RF MACHINES
Sepang (Malaysia), 31 July 2015 – The first two practice sessions at Sepang leading up to the Malaysian World SBK races on Sunday were very positive for Max Biaggi. The Roman rider who is in his second wild card of the season and riding a SBK for the first time on the fast Malaysian track, finished the day with the best time (2’04,823) repeating his performance at Misano. In fact, like his first wild card – almost three years after his retirement from racing as World Champion – the six-time world champion led the morning sessions. The usual abundant tropical rain that fell between FP1 and FP2 made the times go up in the second session. Haslam and Torres, the two official Aprilia Racing – Red Devils riders, finished the day respectively in fifth and sixth place with 2’05,533 and 2’05,623. These are two good placements, well within 1 second of the leader. Both worked hard focusing on settings in view of the races.
Max Biaggi: “A bitter – sweet Friday. Sweet because the first session went rather well but I would have liked to have a dry second session to compete with the best. In the wet we only took three laps just to try out a configuration, but tomorrow we’ll have to fine tune a few details like the gearbox ratio and the suspension since we’re still working on weight distribution. It will be especially important to have the track in the same conditions and put in two consistent sessions in order to avoid misjudging the situation.”
Leon Haslam: “This morning in the first session we worked well and I was satisfied. I knew what I needed to do to improve in the second session which unfortunately turned out to be wet. We started the session on rain tyres so we’d be ready in the event of rain. Toward the end the track was drying off but we only got a few laps in because there was no point taking any risks. All told I’m pleased because we aren’t far from the leaders and we knew that Max would be fast. Tomorrow it will be important to work well and improve so we can be competitive in Superpole.”
Jordi Torres: “This morning went well even though we still need to dial in the bike a bit and I need to improve, especially braking and going into turns fast. We still have some work to do and it’s a shame we weren’t able to take advantage of the afternoon. On the wet track I was only able to take a few laps but just to get an idea of the conditions. Toward the end the track was drying out but it was still dangerous and above all we couldn’t lap fast consistently. Tomorrow we’ll have to work hard to make up for the lost session but we know which direction to go to improve the bike.”
