Boost for Bendsneyder and Odendaal at Sachsenring
The confidence that Bo Bendsneyder and Steven Odendaal pronounced on the first day of the German GP was not just big talk. Bendsneyder in particular proved this by qualifying directly for Q2 in the third free practice. The Dutchman rode to fifteenth place on the grid for the Moto2 race at the Sachsenring. Steven Odendaal did not make it to Q2. With the thirteenth time (1.25.059) in the first qualifying round, he will start tomorrow from P27.
After the difficult weekend in the home round of NTS RW Racing GP in Assen last week, the team was keen to show something in Germany. It succeeded brilliantly, to the satisfaction of team manager Jarno Janssen. “Assen was difficult for all of us, both for the team and for the riders. The ninth time (1.24.178) with which Bo qualified for Q2, and the fifteenth time (1.24.327) with which he qualified for the race, are a good revenge. That puts us in the position to make a nice result tomorrow.”
Bo Bendsneyder: “After Assen, I am certainly satisfied with this. This morning we showed that we have found the right direction, as we expected yesterday. It was not only a good lap time, I could also ride those times constantly. This afternoon in qualifying it was a lot warmer and that made it more difficult for me. The rear started to slide more and therefore I had more chatter at the front. It couldn’t make the same lap times of this morning, unfortunately, but we may be satisfied with fifteenth. In the Moto2 the differences are small and details such as a few degrees more can make a lot of difference. It can go either way: Brad Binder starts behind me, while he was always at the top in the free practice sessions. We will now compare the data from this afternoon with that of this morning to see where I can gain. The expectation is that tomorrow’s temperature will be a lot lower than this afternoon: around 20 degrees, while it was almost 30 degrees today. I think it is good for us if it is a little cooler.”
Steven Odendaal: “I have a hard time riding one very fast lap. As a result, the ranking is not as desired, but the race pace is pretty good. We have made a number of changes to the setup, making me feel comfortable and able to ride constant laps. It is a shame that this one fast lap was not possible, but with a good start there might be a lot in store tomorrow.”