Bendsneyder and Raffin learn a lot on the second day
With the information from the first day of the Moto2 test in Qatar, Bo Bendsneyder and Jesko Raffin were able to take significant steps on the second day. Both riders of NTS RW Racing GP once again completed a solid program and learned a lot from it. They improved their times to 2.00.119 (Bendsneyder) and 2.00.482 (Raffin).
Bendsneyder and Raffin each worked on their own things. For Raffin that meant working on the balance of the motorcycle and looking for a setting that works for him. Bendsneyder decided to do an almost complete race simulation of eighteen laps with a new setup. Neither the Swiss or the Dutchman did a time attack for a fast laptime on this second day.
Bo Bendsneyder #64: “Today was an excellent day, which I am very happy with. This morning the feeling was not great, but this afternoon we took a big step. We have changed a lot on the bike, which gave me a much better feeling. It took a while to understand how I have to ride the bike with the new setup, so that I can get more out of the machine. That is why we decided to do a race simulation in the last session. I am very satisfied with how it went. I was able to stay almost every lap within two-tenths of my fastest lap and keep riding strong and very consistently. We have not done a time attack today, which may make it seem as if we have made little progress, but we will do it tomorrow.”
Jesko Raffin #2: “We have made big steps today, but there is certainly more to it. We have tried a lot again, because we still have much to test. Today I mainly worked on the balance, because I feel that I am still fighting too much with the machine. We try many different things to make riding a bit easier. We thought we had found it for the last session, but when I wanted to try it, something turned out to be wrong with the front tire. We then decided to stay in and focus on analysing the data and preparing the bike for tomorrow.”