Scott Redding #45 -
CEV ROUND 2 at the Catalan GP Circuit 26th / 27th May
After the disappointment of the round 1 result at Albacete the BQR team had great hopes for round 2 at the Montmelo Circuit near Barcelona. With the circuit very close to the team headquarters it’s a real home race, even though all the races take place in Spain, and it was particularly important to be on top form.
With the entry being far greater than spaces on the grid for the race, qualifying on the Saturday was split into two groups sorted in random order. Things went pretty well for Scott with a 7th place qualifying time in the first session improving to 3rd quickest in the second session, just 0.15 seconds off fastest. With the combined qualifying times taken into account Scott’s starting position was on the second row of the grid. This was despite the fact that he was in fact 3rd fastest overall !! This comes about due to the unusual way that grid slots are allocated at the CEV if there is split qualifying. The rider that makes the fastest time overall from either group is allocated pole position, then the fastest rider from the other group takes second grid position and so on alternately. We presume this is done to balance out possible weather condition differences during the separated qualifying sessions.
Warm up on the Sunday morning saw Scott and team mate Stefan Bradl as the quickest two on the circuit, giving high hopes for the race. With the bike running well Scott was able to give a demonstration of his usual speed off the line. He was leading the field by turn 1 (see photo on home page) and held the lead for most of the lap until a front wheel slide that nearly saw an untimely slide to ground. Fortunately Scott recovered the slide using his knee to save the bike from falling completely. A good test for his knee sliders !! This mishap saw him drop back significantly and had him riding to the limit to pull back lost places. By lap 8 his determined riding had him back up to fourth place when his bike suddenly developed an intermittent misfire. By lap 11 he had dropped to 8th and unfortunately lost one more place by the final 15th lap to finish 9th. Not fantastic but a much better result than round 1. Team mate Stefan brought his machine home in second place which, as Scott is easily able to run with him, shows were his true finish position should have been. At least this time points were gained, roll on round 3 and hopefully an end to the electrical gremlins.
After the disappointment of the round 1 result at Albacete the BQR team had great hopes for round 2 at the Montmelo Circuit near Barcelona. With the circuit very close to the team headquarters it’s a real home race, even though all the races take place in Spain, and it was particularly important to be on top form.
With the entry being far greater than spaces on the grid for the race, qualifying on the Saturday was split into two groups sorted in random order. Things went pretty well for Scott with a 7th place qualifying time in the first session improving to 3rd quickest in the second session, just 0.15 seconds off fastest. With the combined qualifying times taken into account Scott’s starting position was on the second row of the grid. This was despite the fact that he was in fact 3rd fastest overall !! This comes about due to the unusual way that grid slots are allocated at the CEV if there is split qualifying. The rider that makes the fastest time overall from either group is allocated pole position, then the fastest rider from the other group takes second grid position and so on alternately. We presume this is done to balance out possible weather condition differences during the separated qualifying sessions.
Warm up on the Sunday morning saw Scott and team mate Stefan Bradl as the quickest two on the circuit, giving high hopes for the race. With the bike running well Scott was able to give a demonstration of his usual speed off the line. He was leading the field by turn 1 (see photo on home page) and held the lead for most of the lap until a front wheel slide that nearly saw an untimely slide to ground. Fortunately Scott recovered the slide using his knee to save the bike from falling completely. A good test for his knee sliders !! This mishap saw him drop back significantly and had him riding to the limit to pull back lost places. By lap 8 his determined riding had him back up to fourth place when his bike suddenly developed an intermittent misfire. By lap 11 he had dropped to 8th and unfortunately lost one more place by the final 15th lap to finish 9th. Not fantastic but a much better result than round 1. Team mate Stefan brought his machine home in second place which, as Scott is easily able to run with him, shows were his true finish position should have been. At least this time points were gained, roll on round 3 and hopefully an end to the electrical gremlins.
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