Karel Abraham did not finish the Grand Prix of France due to problems with his motorcycle settings. The racer from Cardion AB Motoracing team was struggling with his sliding motorcycle on the wet track in Le Mans for several laps and
finally decided to retire after the first third of the race.
Karel Abraham:
“We started the race with the settings from the morning warm up. We knew the motorbike was sliding a little but we believed it
was due to new tyres. It was a disaster right from the start and it was getting worse and worse, the motorbike was sliding so bad that it was impossible to keep it on the road. As for the brakes, these were OK, we had managed to improve these settings, but when I leaned the motorbike, the rear started to slide immediately and I couldn’t do anything about it. That’s all I can say, it
is another unsuccessful race, I’m very disappointed, and it’s hard for all the boys in the team.”
Marco Grana, chief mechanic Cardion AB Motoracing:
“I´m very disappointed, because I expected to finish in top level and we have another zero. The bike was completely same as in the
morning and there is nothing strange in telemetry. Only one thing didn´t work – the temperature of the rear tyre was very low, because in the first lap Karel didn´t go fast enough. Now we are sending the tyre to Bridgestone and we will try to understand, where the tyre should have the problem.”
10th best lap time of qualifying practice to Grand Prix of France in Le Mans made Czech MotoGP Rider Karel Abraham. With 1:35,250 he lost only 1,612 second to pole position holder Dani Pedrosa. Qualifying practice was affected by shower
before beginning of the session.
Karel Abraham:
„We had started with wet tyres, but track was getting dry during the session. Than we saw Stefan Bradl trying dry tyres and making the best lap immediately after. Despite the fact he crashed in next lap, he showed us the right way. We were doing very good time in next few laps riding on second place and I must admit I was hoping for raining again at this moment. Well, it didn´t and we must fight until the end of the session. Tenth place is good comparing to the problems in last races and Friday´s practices. Now we must hope, that we will ride on dry tomorrow. And if it rains, I hope it will start before warm up, so we got the chance to try the bike on the wet.”
Marco Grana, chief mechanic Cardion AB Motoracing:
„We are very happy today. The first success is that we change completely the bike from Friday and I think that we found right way in set up. And second – we were competitive in rain and on dry track too. Karel rode very well in combined condition, which he doesn´t like at all. We are close to the first group. We will adjust the set up little bit and I believe that we could do very good race.”
Czech MotoGP Rider Karel Abraham closed first day in Le Mans on 12th position reaching his maximum 1:35,787. Karel Abraham lost 2,047 seconds to fastest Casey Stoner.
Karel Abraham:
„We tried a lot in the morning, but we must quit first practice earlier. I was feeling that bike is sliding, so I entered pit and we found that we had lost a cap of brake fluid tank. Fluid was leaking on the rear tyre. In the afternoon we tried a different set up and I felt better, I hope that we found a good way and we can improve it. We must hope that it won´t rain, Le Mans circuit has a couple of different surfaces and is very shifty on wet.“
Marco Grana, chief mechanic Cardion AB Motoracing:
„We had small problem in the morning with rear brake fluid tank. Karel touched the cap of tank by his shoe move it out. In the afteroon we tried different bike with different set up on the front. In the end we feel better, but it´s still not comfortable. Karel is losing too much in T3, he´s braking too soon. It´s the same problem we had at the beginning of this season. Tomorrow, we want to test the set up, which is close to set up of bike from last year. We will compare it to the bike from today and we´ll see how Karel will feel on it.”
přeložila Aspena – translated by Aspena, www.aspena.cz
