Moto2: QMMF riders Al-Naimi and Cardús find rhythm and confidence in Germany

Al-Naimi from Doha, Qatar on his Moriwaki prototype

QMMF Racing Team riders Mishal Al-Naimi and Ricky Cardús found their rhythm and confidence on the first day of practice for the German Grand Prix. 27-year-old Al-Naimi from Doha, Qatar tried a new set-up on his Moriwaki prototype and felt comfortable on the twists and bends of the unique Sachsenring. He will try to improve on his 36^th position in tomorrow’s qualifying, once he sorted remaining issues with the gearing of his bike and with his tyre choice.

23-year-old Cardús from Barcelona, Spain, wasn’t worried about his provisional 31^st place, either. Rather than chasing fast lap times on the first day of practice, he concentrated on finding the right settings for the race and is confident to be ready when it counts during Saturday afternoon’s qualifying session.

“When I went out for the first practice this morning, I tried a different setting and had a better feeling for the front immediately. I tried to continue this way and to push in order to see if any problems would arise with these settings, but even though I did a total of 40 laps or more, I kept feeling comfortable. My main goal for tomorrow is to work on the gearing, because this is not easy on this track, especially in the first part where I am losing the most time. I am also not sure yet which tyre to use, soft or hard. I had a problem in the beginning because I destroyed two tyres very quickly. I did five laps on the soft and then five laps on the hard compound. Both tyres broke and I don’t know why!”

“Things didn’t go too well in the morning, but I remained calm and we managed to sort things out for the afternoon. We improved the set-up and my lap times got better. It is the first race weekend since Portugal where we work towards the race without getting nervous instead of trying to get a fast lap time in straight away. Little by little, we are working in a better direction and I have no doubt that we will see this work bear fruit in the race. I didn’t have much luck in the race last year, because I was knocked off by a bunch of other riders in the first turn. But otherwise, I feel comfortable on this circuit and have good information that we can use. If we manage to sort a few more things and then mount a new tyre in the qualification, we should be competitive!”