The opening day of the San Marino Grand Prix saw mixed emotions for the DRIVE M7 SIC Racing Team, with both riders experiencing a different start to proceedings. Feeling in good form Zulfahmi Khairuddin progressively built his speed throughout morning practice, posting his quickest time on his last lap and concluding the session in 20th position. Free Practice Two saw the Malaysian rider continue to pick up the pace as he focussed on further adapting his riding style around the 4.2km circuit. Making good progress Khairuddin completed the afternoon’s session in a respectable 17th place, just 1.482s from first place man Danny Kent.
Also using the upgraded KTM chassis, Jakub Kornfeil experienced a different start to his weekend, as he relentlessly battled with the new set-up of his #84 machine. Despite his determined efforts to improve, the Czech rider was overcome with technical issues, ending the day in 28th position.
Bike #63 – Zulfahmi Khairuddin
FP1: P20; 1’45.072 (DRY) – 19 laps
FP2: P17; 1’44.579 (DRY) –17 laps
“I think today we can be happy with the bike because in the second practice I felt a big improvement from FP1. Still we will continue to see what we can do to further improve the set-up, so hopefully tomorrow we will be able to make another step. We are looking for at least one second more because we know everyone will go faster again. My main difficulty today was turn twelve, which is where I lost the most time, so I will have a look at the data and see what I can do to go faster, but for sure one second is necessary.”
Bike #84 – Jakub Kornfeil
FP1: P16; 1’44.942 (DRY) – 17 laps
FP2: P28; 1’45.145 (DRY) – 16 laps
“Today I made only one fast lap which was at the end of the first practice, the rest of the time we were just trying to find ourselves in a better condition. Of course I wanted to be much faster but it was not possible. This weekend we have an upgrade from KTM, a new frame and a new swing-arm but unfortunately it’s not working for us at the moment. We need more time to really understand the bike; today we tried everything for the afternoon practice but still we couldn’t make any progress. This is not the only problem that we had; we also had an issue with the clutch and possibly something with the engine, so we have to find out what it is and why my bike doesn’t want to stop. There are so many things we must look into; for tomorrow we have to find something. Now we are working together with KTM to find a solution. The time that I did today was my maximum but I know we are capable of much more. Tomorrow we have one last chance before the qualifying and then in the qualifying we have to be within our target of the top four rows. This is our focus and this is what we will be working even harder for.”
Circuit: Misano World Circuit Marco Simoncelli
Circuit Length: 4.2 km
