Final Test Leaves a Little More Work to Do for Aoyama

A difficult second and final evening at the last pre-season Test in Qatar for Hiroshi Aoyama failed to dampen the Japanese rider’s spirits, as he left the Losail circuit optimistic ahead of the start of the new campaign.

Problems with rear grip caused an issue for the Interwetten Honda MotoGP rider and his team which was unable to be resolved before the close of play on Friday night, but an improved front feeling with the prototype was a positive for the 250cc World Champion.

“It has been a bit of a hard day for us this second day in Qatar, but we started to work a little bit on set-up – yesterday was just to learn the track,” said Aoyama. “We improved the front feeling and the grip so it was positive for us, but we have a little bit of a bigger problem on the rear so we will try to find a solution.”

He added: “In the time we had here we could not find the right solution, so it was a little bit hard. We kept working on it and we will see how much we can improve in the race week.”

Aoyama’s team will now analyse the data gathered across both evenings of the Test to see if there are improvements that can be made ahead of the first race of the campaign in Qatar on April 11th – his debut in the premier class.

Aoyama’s crew chief Tom Jojic said: “The second Test day was not easy for us. We are not yet where we have to be at this race track and Hiro needs some laps with the fast riders to learn from them. But even though he had problems with the rear we were able to improve his feeling for the front of the bike and that is a positive point about this Test. He was much happier today than yesterday.”

Jojic added: “I am not sure what I should expect from the Grand Prix and I don’t want to say anything, but I think a top-ten result would be a realistic target.”