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Mega post for the qualifying session at Motegi |
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Posted by Staff
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Saturday, 22 September 2007 |
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Page 6 of 6
Kurtis Roberts struggled in the blistering sunshine of final qualifying for
Sunday's Japanese Grand Prix on the Twin Ring Motegi Circuit, a track that
doesn't suit the Honda-powered KR212V hybrid. Lacking the acceleration needed
for the track's many slow corners, Roberts qualified 21st for Sunday's fifteenth
round of the MotoGP World Championship.
Though he qualified on the back row
of the grid, it wasn't for lack of effort. The youngest son of the three-time
500cc World Champion and team owner crashed in the morning practice entering
turn five. Roberts found early in the weekend that the lack of acceleration was
problematic and he was keenly aggressive on the brakes. But his aggression ended
up putting him on the ground. "Just trying too hard and lost the front on
the brakes," he said."Still on the brakes on my knee and lost the front in
turn five. You know you can't go any faster, but you're trying to and that's when
you know it's going to happen. We're not going to make up any time anywhere
else. We definitely aren't going to make anything up under acceleration or on
top speed. So where else are you going to make it up on this
track?"
Rather than de-tune him, the crash inspired Roberts to try harder
in qualifying. Try as he might, he couldn't significantly improve his time
throughout the one hour session.
The Japanese GP is the first of three
flyaways, with the MotoGP circus enjoying a break afterward before moving on to
Australia and Malaysia.
The final round is at Valencia.
KURTIS
ROBERTS - 21st Position, 1:50.035
The nature of the track's killing us,
because it's all these places where the bike's got to accelerate. Even the not
stop-and-go stuff, it's still low in the powerband, unless it's revving it's
guts out. It's got to have a torque curve and we don't have one compared to
everyone
else's. We knew how the session was going to go before the session
started. It's just getting past the point of frustration, but we're here because
it's not like you can sit here and say they're working on it, they're working on
it, they're working on it. For us, this is completely
not against any part of
the team, because we're all working our butts off.
CHUCK
AKSLAND-TEAM MANAGER
It's no fun to be at the bottom of the time sheets,
that's for sure. The guys aren't working any less hard than they did last year
when we were at the top. It's just very frustrating and a very difficult
weekend. We'll go out and do our best tomorrow. Kurtis's feedback is the bike's
working great, corner speed's good, he catches people on the brakes, we're just
lacking acceleration. And no matter how fast you make the motorcycle go around
the corner, we can't make up for that acceleration.
from Team Roberts press
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