Yamaha VR46 Master Camp Team Make Moves on Misano Friday

2022-09-13 10:01
The Yamaha VR46 Master Camp Team got into gear at the Misano World Circuit Marco Simoncelli today, making their first kilometres in the two free practice sessions. Manuel Gonzalez was pushing for a provisional Q2-spot, but narrowly missed out and ended the day in 15th place in the combined timesheets. Keminth Kubo was determined to learn as much as possible during the dry track time. He ended the day in 30th position in the combined FP results.

Gonzalez likes the Misano track. Already familiar with its challenging corners, he was soon up to speed and kept his positive momentum going throughout the sunny FP1 session. He got up to 14th, a provisional Q2 place, until the final stages when the time attack started. He responded by clocking a 1‘37.636s on lap 20/20 that put him in 17th place.

The Spanish rider had another strong session in the afternoon. He was gaining pace and was keen to join the mini time-attack action in the final stages. With less than 1s covering the first 19 riders, he finished 14th in the FP2 results with a 1‘37.218s, set on lap 17/19. Unfortunately, there was one rider with a faster time from this morning who moved Manugasss to 15th place in the combined results, giving the Yamaha VR46 Master Camp rider reasons to push extra hard in tomorrow‘s FP3.

Kubo aimed to use FP1 to get back up to speed following a challenging Austrian GP. The Thai rider had ridden the Misano track once before on a YZF-R3 but found it challenging to adapt to the Moto2 lines. He focused on getting into a good rhythm and set a 1‘39.001s on lap 15/19 to finish the session in 29th position.

The rookie continued building up his confidence with the help of his crew and got another 19 laps in to get more familiar with the technical aspects of this track. Despite making a time improvement compared to his best FP1 lap, Kubo‘s personal best FP2 time, a 1‘38.877s set on lap 16 lap, saw him taking 30th place in the FP2 and the combined FP timesheets.



GELETE NIETO
GELETE NIETO
SPORTS DIRECTOR







Manu‘s set up is very good, so that‘s important because we have a good base to work with. We had a very positive Friday with his side of the garage, so we can work well for tomorrow. Manu is only 0.6s off the front, and he is fast also while he is riding alone.

Kubo had a difficult day. This track isn't very easy for him, so it requires a lot of work and dedication. He found a little bit of time in the afternoon, but he is looking to make a bigger step tomorrow. It will depend on tomorrow's weather whether he will be able to continue building onto the work he did today, or if he will have to start from scratch getting used to this circuit in the wet with a wet set-up.




MANUEL GONZALEZ
MANUEL GONZALEZ







I think it‘s been a positive day. We are not far from the first places and the settings changes we made between FP1 and FP2 were good. We still miss one or two tenths in each sector, but we will work hard to be closer tomorrow. Let‘s see tomorrow how the weather will be.




KEMINTH KUBO
KEMINTH KUBO







I had a bad day, I‘m upset because I'm not making the progress I want. I‘m going to work with the team, and I‘ll do my best to improve tomorrow.

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