Former Foggy Petronas rider Steve Martin didn't make the DFX Honda debut he'd hoped for in Saturday's Qatar season opener, but now knows which set-up direction to head in - after going the wrong way for race two.
Starting from the fifth row of the grid, Martin - in contrast to recent seasons on the underpowered FP1 - quickly gained places to hold 14th by the fourth lap. Then with Kawasaki PSG-1 riders
Regis Laconi and
Fonsi Nieto taking each other out on lap 12, the Australian was elevated to 12th, which finally became 11th when he passed Yamaha's Shinichi Nakatomi soon after.
But race two was to prove less fruitful, with set-up changes made to Martin's Honda resulting in excessive tyre wear that left him 18th at the flag.
"This weekend was always going to be tough as it was the first time we had a number of new parts and were able to ride and test the bike with all these new elements together," said Steve. "That ultimately meant we spent a lot of the track sessions working on bike set up and essentially 'testing', which is never going to be ideal for being competitive at a race weekend.
"Whilst I made some good progress in race one, I'm still a bit disappointed with 11th as that is not a position I want to be in and know I am capable of so much more with a competitive package, but I guess at least I did get some points in the bag.
"In the second race we went stiffer with the suspension to try and get it to turn and it was completely the wrong way. I had no grip at all, like riding around in the wet. So at least we know to go softer from now on. The bike's new electronic system is also not up to scratch and when racing against the factory guys you've just got to have the full package!
"At this point we are still learning the bike and working through new part evaluation and base set up options, so I am confident there is a lot more to come and hopefully it will, very soon!" he concluded.
Martin will be hoping that local knowledge will help overcome his current technical problems at this weekend's Phillip Island round.
