Better feeling for Bendsneyder and Odendaal

The first practice session on the Barcelona-Catalunya circuit was a bit difficult for Bo Bendsneyder and Steven Odendaal. In the second session, the riders of NTS RW Racing GP already fared much better and they caught the rising line. Bendsneyder improved from 20th to 14th, Odendaal from 24th to 20th.

The 14th time of the Dutchman in FP2 unfortunately did not mean that he qualified for Q2 tomorrow (for the time being). The combined results of the practice sessions apply to this and Bendsneyder is currently 17th in that list. However, there is a good chance that he will still be able to get to the first 14 in FP3 on Saturday morning, looking at the steps he made on the first day.

For Odendaal this seems to be more difficult, from 22nd in the combined standings, but the South African is positive after the strong improvement he made between the first two sessions.

Bo Bendsneyder (17 – 1.45.349): “In the first session we had some problems. I didn’t feel super on the bike. I was fast pretty quickly, but could not improve my lap times and therefore I remained too far from the top. We were able to take a good step in the second practice. I immediately went out with a new tire to attack. It is a good time, with some errors in different sectors, so it was not my ideal time. That indicates that it can be done faster – which is positive – and that must be the case. We know what to do, especially at the front of the bike, to be faster tomorrow.”

Steven Odendaal (22 – 1.45.804): “I continue to struggle a bit with the character of the Triumph engine, but it is already much better than two weeks ago in Italy. This morning was not easy, but we found a setting that made me over a second faster in the afternoon. It is important to take another step for tomorrow in order to move further to the front, but I think we are on the right track.”