DRIVE M7 SIC Racing Team rider Jakub Kornfeil got his home Grand Prix weekend off to a positive start this morning, with a top five performance throughout first practice.
Following some changes made to the #84 machine, the Czech rider initially struggled to regain his rhythm around the 5.4km circuit in the afternoon session. Returning to the box Kornfeil’s crew worked hard against the clock to change the bike back to its previous set-up. Heading back out on track for the remaining seven minutes of FP2, Kornfeil quickly got back up to speed claiming a respectable 12th place as the chequered flag came out.
Teammate Adam Norrodin experienced a harder start to his Czech campaign, after a mistake on his opening lap saw the young Malay crash at turn thirteen. Returning to the box unhurt, his crew swiftly began to repair the significant damage to the #7 Honda. Only able to complete six laps in first practice, rookie Norrodin had a tough task at hand to catch up to the rest of the Moto3 field. Getting his head down in the final session of the day, the 18-year-old worked hard to improve his time but was unable to significantly improve his position.
#84 Jakub Kornfeil
“In first practice the bike felt amazing from the start; it was so nice to ride, so I was very happy; also my position was fourth, which was a good start to the weekend. We had a little bit of an issue in the front of the bike, so for second practice we wanted to improve this but unfortunately we changed the set-up quite a lot and it didn’t work. I could immediately feel that it wasn’t right, so I returned to the box before doing any flying laps. We made a small adjustment and I went back out on track again but still no improvement. I returned to the box again with eighteen minutes to go and my crew chief made the decision to change the settings back to exactly how they were this morning. My mechanics worked very very fast, so thanks to them because they changed the gear box and all the bike very quickly, which gave me seven minutes to make some lap times. I went back out alone and got up to twelfth position, but overall we are top ten today which is important. For tomorrow I’m confident we can go much quicker.”
#7 Adam Norrodin
“FP1 was not good today because I crashed right at the beginning of the session. I touched one bump in turn thirteen and lost the front. After the bike was repaired we had just three flying laps so there was no real time to improve. My crew worked so quickly to get me back out but there was a lot of damage to the bike; I’m sorry to the team for this. My lap time was quite far away so in FP2 I tried to concentrate more. Missing the majority of FP1 meant we didn’t have much data to go on, so I just had to focus on finding my rhythm. We tried a couple of small changes but it wasn’t working for me and we lost a little of the grip in the rear. I didn’t have as much confidence to open the gas in the exits, which is where we lost most of our time. It’s also because of my focus; I pushed too hard too quickly at the very beginning and I made an unnecessary mistake. Tomorrow I have to start fresh in the head, focus and concentrate on building up my pace.”