Suddenly the front end of the bike really shook. Immediately I thought I’d made a mistake but I looked down and saw the steering damper hanging off. I knew any chances of winning had gone in that moment. It took me a couple of laps to settle down and find my way. I’d never ridden a bike without a steering damper before but I was determined to do my best and fight hard to the finish. We’d been practicing and testing Qatar for 11 days and my job was to finish the race. I did just that but in 16th place and out of the points.
I was still really hurting when my Polaris World team-mate Mattia Pasini won the 250cc race and I was first into pit lane to congratulate him. I knew how much it meant to him and the team but I also knew we could have brought the team a double win at the first grand prix of the season. It hurt me even more but my day will come.
Despite my problems, what a night it turned out for British racing. Big congratulations to Scott Redding, Danny Webb and
James Toseland for some brilliant rides. What a debut by Scott and it was only that long drag to line that prevented him finishing on the podium after setting the fastest lap of the race. Danny held on to take easily his best grand prix result while James was awesome in the
MotoGP race.
We will all be back in action at
Jerez and although I may be on the back foot in the World Championship points, we will not be doing anything different. World champion Gabor Talmacsi only scored four points in Qatar.
I’ve been fastest in the two practice session at Jerez this year and I’ve raced and tested at the track so many times. After the two tests the bike is really dialled in for the track and we just can’t wait to get down to Spain and carry on where we left off in the practice and qualifying session in Qatar.
There are still 16 grands prix remaining and both me and the team will be putting all those negatives behind us and go into the race with some real positive thoughts about what we have already achieved together.
Bradley
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