Hi all,
My first Red Bull MotoGP Rookies Cup race weekend is done!
A difficult start on Friday and a good ending on Sunday.
In FP1 I crashed, unfortunately, after 3 laps and the bike had too much damage to continue, it was a missed chance to understand the bike better.
For FP2 I needed to get back the feeling with the bike but also I had to try to find out what could be the good direction for the set up as the Qualifying was already one hour after this last Free Practice.
In consultation with the suspension specialist we were able to make an adjustment in the set up. It turned out well in qualifying where I really focused on that one good lap, which gave me the 12th position on the grid for my first ever Red Bull MotoGP Rookies Cup race.
After Qualifying I felt that we maybe had to make a next (little) step in the set up for Race 1. But a race is different to Qualifying and with some good advice from the Rider Coach (thanks Dani), we decided to keep the same set-up for the race because there is no warm up to test this.
In Race 1 my start was not perfect and there was a gap to the front group, I pushed as much as possible and I almost reached the leading group but I guess I pushed a bit too much as I had to ....... collect a long lap penalty...... I still finished 14th and grabbed some points in my first race.
After my experience in Race 1 we decided to change the set up a little bit for Race 2 to solve some problems.
This time my start was much better and could stay with the front group.
My pace was good but in this class it's easy to lose several positions and difficult to get them back. For sure I learned a lot but also I really enjoyed this race and finished top 10. Not bad for my first Rookies weekend and many thanks to the whole Rookies team crew!
Can't wait for the coming weekend, I will work hard to try and make a next step to the front.
Stay safe,
Collin