The 250cc riders took to the Sepang Circuit in searing heat late this afternoon as the Malaysian Grand Prix got underway in typically tricky conditions. An unusual session saw a variety of different riders take their turn at the top of the time sheets before series leader Hiroshi Aoyama took control. However, with the top eight riders separated by only a second it is unclear whether the Honda rider will be able to withstand the Aprilia onslaught until the end of Sunday’s race.
Mapfre rookie Mike Di Meglio continued his impressive recent form, lapping at the sharp end of the time sheets throughout the session despite admitting before this weekend that he always finds Sepang a difficult place to set his bike up for. However, his performance today suggests that those worries will remained confined to his 125cc days, with the Frenchman clocking a best time of 2’07.973 on his fifteenth lap, at which point he topped the provisional standings. His team-mate Álvaro Bautista has started out at Sepang with the same attitude and hunger he showed at Phillip Island a week ago, continually improving his lap times until a rear grip problem emerged in the second half of the session. However, after setting the fifth fastest time today and in the knowledge that only a win will do on Sunday in order to keep his title hopes alive the Spaniard is refusing to throw the towel in just yet.
Balázs Németh struggled to get to grips with the longest circuit on the MotoGP calendar today, although he did find some front-end solutions for his Aprilia that should allow him to improve further tomorrow. The Balatonring rider set his best lap at the final attempt today but was still some five and a half seconds off Aoyama’s pace.
4th Mike Di Meglio 2.07.973 (18 laps): “I never got a good feeling for this circuit on the 125 but on the 250 I felt great immediately. The bike worked really well from the start and so I just tried to set a consistent pace and get my references. The only problem was that my Aprilia didn’t have good rear grip in some sections of the track. Anyway, we tried our best to resolve that and to help me feel comfortable. In Australia we solved our problems with the front end so I’m confident we can do so with the rear here. Slipstreaming is important to the lap time here and I honestly didn’t even try to get behind another rider today because my engine was working so well. Tomorrow I’ll try to get behind somebody and shave even more tenths off my lap time.”
5th Álvaro Bautista 2.08.159 (20 laps): “I felt comfortable with the bike as soon as I went out on the track today and my feeling was good. The only thing was that the bike was running wide in a few corners and when I tried to pull it back in I was losing the rear. We worked hard on sorting it out and by the end I think we found the way forward. I’m more or less happy with the result because it’s only the first day and we’re only a couple of tenths off the fastest lap. The pace is on lap record and we’re there with the frontrunners, so hopefully the weather holds out tomorrow and allows us to continue improving. As far as I’m concerned I think the more riders are fighting for the win on Sunday the better for me, because that would help us. Having said that it is difficult to make any predictions when the conditions are like this and racing is very different to practice. Holding that pace for so many laps is not easy.”
23rd Balázs Németh 2.13.414 (21 laps): “I have never ridden in such suffocating heat and it has prevented me from putting any kind of consistent rhythm together today. It has been a tough day because of the heat and the fact this circuit is so demanding. You have the throttle wide open for quite a long time and I needed to follow other riders to improve my time. You can gain half a second by picking up a good slipstream down the long straights. It is quite a wide circuit and in that respect quite forgiving if you make a mistake. Today we focused on the front end of my Aprilia and we found some solutions that have helped me get the bike turning much better.”
