"We arrived in Phillip Island early Tuesday evening and the weather was also good down there, probably the nicest I’ve seen it in the three-years I’ve been there. On Wednesday we didn’t really do a lot, just caught up on some sleep and then in the afternoon went for a walk around the town of Cowes (the closest town to the circuit). The weather was now starting to get more like Phillip Island and coming colder by the hour.
"On Thursday Stiggy and my dad went to the circuit in the hire car and I hired a mountain bike and rode to the circuit and explored a bit which was quite good fun. At the circuit I did my normal pre-weekend routines and got things organised. That evening we had dinner with my team manager Dieter Stappert as it was his birthday.
"On Friday morning the 125cc free practice was wet but as the circuit is right next to the sea the wind is always very strong and was completely dry for our session. For the first half of the session I was really struggling with the chassis. Every time I got hard on the gas the front would come light and the bike was very unstable. I had no control over where I wanted to put the bike and it was sending itself into tank-slappers on the exits of most of the corners.
"After a few small suspension changes the bike was coming more stable but for sure the strong wind was causing most of the problem. For the afternoon the wind had eased up a bit but we went further with the chassis set-up to make it a bit more stable and it was improving but more chattering was coming.
"The aim was to try and find the balance between getting the bike stable and having as little chattering as possible and most changes that we made were making one thing better but another worse. At the end of the session I was pretty happy with the chassis as it was getting better and better and the engine was pretty good even though I had a small gear change problem. I finished the session in 13th.
