The season hasn't started perfectly for us but we are definitely a lot stronger and more reliable than last year, it's been a long time since I have finished four out of four of the first races. Through qualifying in Qatar I could see whilst we were lapping nearly three seconds a lap quicker than last year, last year Qatar was a disaster with four DNFs for Petronas.
We still lack acceleration but his year we turned it around and I managed to qualify ninth and finish both races. Our top end speed seems to have improved and I was able to slip stream people on what would have to be one of the biggest horse power tracks around. The problem I have in the races is getting stuck behind guys that lap slower, holding me up in the corners, but have more acceleration out the corners.
With hopefully our worst track of the season out of the way I was looking forward to Phillip Island as it is a circuit that really suits our bike. Throughout qualifying I managed to stay in and about the top six or so and it was a great effort by the team to keep me on the right settings at the right time. I tried a qualify tyre for the first time just before Superpole and did 1m 33.4s which gave me some confidence as I had taken it a bit easy so was hoping for a 1m 32s. I didn't quite get there but and I was pretty happy to be sharing the front row with three World Champions.
In morning warm up with clear track and race set up I managed to lap quicker than I did in Superpole but once again the races were the bug bear of the weekend as I would get stuck behind some one and not be able to pass. I was lapping quite a lot slower than I wanted to be but there wasn't a lot I could do about it.
The positives from the weekend, however, were that we finished less than 30 seconds from the winners which is a lot closer than we had been for quite a while. I look forward to next month as although it's quiet on the racing front we have two test s at two of my favourite circuits where we should have some new parts to test.
Bye for now.
Steve Martin
