In his latest update for Crash.net, rising 250 GP star Chaz Davies reviews rounds five and six of the 2005 world championship; the Italian Grand Prix at Mugello and the Catalan Grand Prix at Barcelona - which saw the Aprilia Germany rider win the 'privateer' battle at the former, then produce 'the biggest front end save of my life' before race day mechanical disappointment at the latter...
When I got to the Mugello circuit early Thursday morning I did the usual looking through last year’s data and went through where we were going to start with the set-up with the mechanics. Then Casey (Stoner) and I did a few laps on the scooters.
Normally we have pretty even scooters so it turns out in a race but as it was his team’s home GP they had a heap of 500cc four-stroke Aprilia scooters, absolute beasts! You could get up to 100mph without even getting much of a run onto the main straight!
After us messing around for most of the afternoon, killing time, we went out for a pizza in the local pizzeria and then got an early night at the hotel. Them boys know how to make a good pizza!
On Friday morning the sun was well and truly out in usual Mugello style. It was pretty warm but nothing compared to 2 years ago. Then it was about 35-37° c, but now about 30ish. My team-mate, Martin, was feeling it a bit. It’s weird because you’d think he’d be used to it coming from Columbia but he wasn’t really, I put him at ease. I said "Wait until Qatar, then you’ll sweat!"
For the first 5 laps of practice I ran in pistons and got settled in quick. Mugello is far from the easiest of circuits when you go there for the first time, but I’ve done a few laps around there now so it helps. The chassis felt pretty good right from the off, which is always promising, and I did a 1min 57.2secs, only 0. 3secs off my best lap from the GP last year and ended up in 13th.
