Rabat takes 9th pole on Zircotec equipped Marc VDS bike with record lap time at Auz GP and could be World Champ tomorrow with a win. Tito Rabat set the fastest ever time by a Moto2 bike around the scenic Philip Island circuit during qualifying in Australia today. He placed his Kalex chassied machine fitted with a Zircotec ceramic coating at the front of the grid by just 15 thousandths of a second from Johann Zarco on the Caterham. Rabat was on imperious form throughout all the practice sessions and qualifying and it would be a brave person to back against him in tomorrow’s race. Rabat’s teammate Mika Kallio is the only realistic rider who might be able to prevent Rabat taking the title. Kallio’s machine is likewise kitted with a Zircotec ceramic coating and the flying Finn is determined not to let Rabat run away with the title. If Rabat wins the Australian GP and Kallio does not take a podium place, the Championship will be his tomorrow. Kallio had two pretty big smashes in Friday practice but came back to come within a hairs breadth of taking pole himself. He finished qualifying third on the grid but crucially still on the front row. Kallio has several times proven himself a master of the ‘quick get away’ off the line recently, a skill which might be his best weapon in tomorrow’s Grand Prix if he is to prevent Rabat from winning the title. Kallio was fairly optimistic after qualifying despite the big crashes. He and his team of mechanics have worked to find a new setting for the front that was giving him a lot more feel for how the bike is behaving. Interestingly he also thinks they now have a much better setting for the rear. It has been a dropping away in rear grip which has proved a problem for rider time and again over the last few months. In Friday practice he experimented with running the same set of tyres for slightly longer periods and found they were coming to their best at around seven or eight laps in. In response Mika ran with the same tyre for the whole of the qualifying session today and it paid off. He has already identified that will make his usual lightening start much more difficult. Conversely instead of the bikes performance moving away from him as the race progresses as has been the case time and again recently, the bike should come towards him allowing him to get progressively faster. Tomorrow should be a very interesting race. The top five positions on the grid are separated by only 0.287s proving once again just how competitive and close the racing within this class actually is. With the Marc VDS boys taking pole and third and Swiss rider Johann Zarco the filling in Marc VDS sandwich the remaining top five riders were Maverick Vignales and Thomas Luthi in fourth and fifth respectively. Jorge Navarro on the Marc VDS Moto3 bike made huge strides for qualifying and managed to take 11th place on the grid. Practice had been very frustrating with the rider unable to find a setting that suited him. The team are now reasonably confident of a good points scoring finish for the young rider tomorrow.
Posted on: Sat, 18 Oct 2014 13:19:43 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015