Marc VDS Racing Team riders, Scott Redding and Hector Faubel, were left looking for set-up improvements after finishing today's opening practice session ahead of the Spanish Grand Prix at Jerez in 22nd and 30th position respectively.
Redding, who was second fastest during the final pre-season test at Jerez just one month ago, struggled to overcome chatter problems during today's hour-long free practice session. The 17-year-old Briton ran inside the top ten during the first 30 minutes, but was unable to improve his lap time and slipped down the order as the front-end chatter caused him to run wide through the slower turns on the 4.423 km/2.748 mile Jerez circuit.
Having been drafted into the Marc VDS Racing Team just days before the opening race in Qatar, Faubel used today's free practice session to continue refining the set-up of his Suter MMX machine to better suit his riding style - work that would normally have been completed during pre-season testing. After improving his feeling with the bike early on in the session, the 26-year-old Spaniard started to suffer the same chatter problems as his teammate as he closed on Redding's lap time.
The Marc VDS Racing Team engineers will study the data from both bikes tonight, in order to find a solution ahead of tomorrow afternoon's all-important qualifying session.
Scott Redding #45: 22nd - 1'46.134
"It was a disappointing first session for me. We had some problems with chatter into the turns, which was pushing me wide and away from the apex. At a couple of turns I was almost in the stands with the spectators it was that bad. We didn't have this problem during the IRTA test here, so it's obviously got something to do with the change in track conditions, but we need to look a little more closely at the problem tonight. The team need to come up with a solution before qualifying tomorrow, as it's going to be even more critical to start from near the front of the grid here than it was in Qatar. The traffic was much worse than in Qatar; it was really difficult to find a clear space on track during the session. It didn't help that some riders were cruising round after their fast laps comparing times with their teammates and blocking the racing line."
Hector Faubel #55: 30th - 1'46.863
"We're still playing catch up compared to everyone else and that it a little frustrating. But today wasn't so bad; we managed to make quite a few changes to the bike and there was a definite improvement in some areas. We will analyse the data tonight and, hopefully, we can refine some of these changes to further improve the feeling I have with the bike tomorrow. While it's frustrating to be doing what everyone else did during pre-season testing, we're definitely moving forward and improving with each lap, so I'm happy with that and I'm determined to continue this trend throughout the weekend."
Michael Bartholemy: Team Manager
"Hector has continued to improve today. He's become more familiar with our bike and is now adapting the set-up to better suit his riding style. As his lap times improved he started to run into the same chatter problems as his teammate, although the symptoms are different to those Scott experienced in Qatar. For me, the issue is very simple; we need to find around two seconds if we are to qualify anywhere near the front row of the grid tomorrow. The one positive we can take from today is that both riders are experiencing identical problems now, so we have both crews working towards finding a solution at this time. And we need to find a solution, because I'm not happy that we're outside the top twenty today, when Scott was consistently in the top five during testing here just one month ago."
