With the 1,703 s gap between him and the fastest rider Casey Stoner, Karel Abraham finished the second day of the official MotoGP Test at Sepang in Malaysia in twelfth position. Compared to his yesterday’s maximum, the Czech motorcycle rider improved his best lap time by 1,2 seconds and minimized the gap between him and the fastest rider by 0,421 seconds. Karel Abraham completed 66 laps, approximately 366 kilometres.
Karel Abraham
„We’ve done a lot of work today. We completed 39 laps before 1:00 PM, but it was the only solution because we wanted to get as much data as possible. I’m little bit disappointed that we completed only one successful run – during which I set my best lap time from Wednesday. The bike isn’t perfect yet, it doesn’t work optimally . We need to find the right set-up between the chassis and electronics because one thing affects the other one more than we expected. I believe that we will improve tomorrow, despite the fact that I’m quite tired because I completed two times more laps than some other riders. I already have some blisters on my hands, so it’s gonna be uncomfortable.“
Martin Havlíček, mechanic of Cardion AB Motoracing team
„During the afternoon we achieved our goal for today – to improve our lap time and finish under 2 minutes and 3 seconds. I believe that we could be even faster. The conditions at the track were great, in the morning we used our both machines, then we took the best parts from each bike and installed it to the one which Karel used during the afternoon.“
„For sure, our lap times can be even better, the bike has still some reserves. We will be satisfied if we improve our time by eight tenths. But now we are fighting for every tenth and it also depends on Karel, who must set his lap times on his own. Although Barbera used slip stream behind Valentino Rossi and improved his own time, but it was an exception.“
„Yesterday we worked on the bike until 11:00 PM and today’s test showed us that it was the right decision. We have a good top speeds, we are faster by 15 km/h comparing to the last year’s 800cc bike. Our plan for tomorrow isn’t to complete as much laps as today, but I believe that the time under 2 minutes and 2 seconds isn’t unrealistic.“
source: Cardion AB press release
