On Friday morning its time to forget about everything that goes on and the fact that it’s my home GP and get on with the job. It started well, with the bike feeling pretty good from the off. All session I was around about where I should be and finished up in 11th on a 1min 34.6secs.
For the afternoon we had a couple of new things to try, a different front and rear tyre. The front which was stiffer to the normal one that I use and a triple compound rear tyre which is the first time I have ever used something like that. They both felt good.
I liked the front because of its extra stiffness it allowed me to brake later and harder, and then rear also felt good. A bit more stable because of the stiffer sidewalls and seemed to give a good constant feeling which is good for when it comes to the race. I went 0.6secs faster than the morning and was the first kit rider in 12th place, 0.2secs off 8th.
On Saturday the sky looked just like it did on Friday, as if it could rain at any time but it was holding off, just. Saturday morning went ok. I had to use the softer side walled front tyre because we only had 3 of the harder ones for the whole weekend so the 2 we had, had to be saved for 2nd qualifying in the afternoon and obviously the race.
The softer tyre felt ok, just a bit more loose on the brakes. I also had a small problem with the engine where it wouldn’t pull out of the Melbourne loop. I was having to get on the gas extremely early and stay on the side of the tyre as much as possible just to keep the RPM up which was quite dangerous. Other riders could stand it up and still pull well out of the corner.
I told my mechanic but he said that there was nothing he could do. Just to back up what I was saying, I was 2 tenths slower in the last sector due to this problem. I was 13th on a 1min 34.0secs.
