Khairuddin And Kornfeil Ready To Fight Back In Tomorrows San Marino Grand Prix

Misano Adriatico RN, Italy – Saturday 12th September

Circuit: Misano World Circuit Marco Simoncelli
Circuit Length: 4.2 km

Bike #63 – Zulfahmi Khairuddin
Qualifying: P23; 1’43.867 (DRY) – 13 laps

Bike #84 – Jakub Kornfeil
Qualifying: P20; 1’43.700 (DRY) – 16 laps

DRIVE M7 SIC Racing Team rider Jakub Kornfeil will start tomorrow’s San Marino Grand Prix from 20th position, just ahead of teammate Zulfahmi Khairuddin in 23rd.

Looking in good form throughout the weekend Zulfahmi Khairuddin continued to make progress on his #63 KTM machine. Getting straight to work as the Moto3 qualifying session began, the Malaysian rider posted his fastest lap time of the weekend, immediately launching himself up the timesheets. As the final fifteen minutes approached, holding fourteenth position, Khairuddin looked set to finish strong. After returning on track for a final push, he soon became aware of a technical issue with his bike and was forced to return to the box. Unable to fix the problem in time, the Malaysian rider was left with no choice but to prematurely end his qualifying session.

Despite still struggling with the set-up of his bike, Jakub Kornfeil continued to push throughout the forty minute morning practice. Finding some improvement, the Czech rider worked hard to finish the session in an admirable sixteenth place. As qualifying got underway Kornfeil battled once again with his machine, but determined not to give in, the 22 year old tirelessly pressed on, posting his quickest lap time of the session in the final moments.

Johan Stigefelt – Team Manager

“This weekend we received a new update from KTM and for Fahmi it’s been working very well. All was going good but then in the last minutes of qualifying we ran into a technical problem. Unfortunately this happened right when he was about to push for a good lap. There was an issue with the electronics, so I’m really sorry for Fahmi because he’s been doing a great job here. Tomorrow he will start from 23rd, which is not good but also not so bad because the times are so close. I think he has a lot of potential because his race pace is quite good and he feels very confident with the bike, so I’m very happy for this.
With Jakub we’ve been struggling from FP1 with the new chassis, but also today after going back to the old one. We had some issues yesterday with the electronics and with the gear box, so for this reason we didn’t want to take the risk to run with everything new. In the end we have done the qualifying with his old bike but still there are some issues. We will keep working and try to improve everything for him. It will be a tough race but we will do all we can.”

#63 Zulfahmi Khairuddin

“I’ve felt really good this weekend, especially with the bike; the team have made a good job. Today we didn’t really change so much the bike, I just concentrated on my riding, especially in the fast corner where I’ve been losing a lot of time. In the end we were able to make some small improvements with the set-up and I was really happy with the bike. In qualifying I did my best lap at the beginning with quite old tyres. After putting in the new tyres I found a good tow, but as soon as I tried to push something went wrong and the power kept cutting, so I had to return to the box. The guys tried hard to fix it but unfortunately we didn’t have enough time. It’s really disappointing and I’m really sorry for us because I knew I could do a good lap. The gap to the front is not so far so I’m still confident for tomorrow to be in a good place and I believe points are definitely possible.”

#84 Jakub Kornfeil

“It’s been a very difficult weekend which I was not expecting, I just cannot find the feeling with the bike. The mechanics are working very very hard; they are trying so many things. I think this is the hardest it’s been for us this season; we have so many problems, especially from yesterday. In qualifying all I could do was try to go behind someone in the last lap, to follow and try to make a good time but it was very difficult, especially whilst I was behind Fenati and Migno. Even these guys I couldn’t follow; I couldn’t stop the bike – this is the same problem like we had yesterday. Today it has improved a little but it seems as one thing improves another problem appears. We are still not ready with the bike and I don’t have so much confidence at this time. For Warm Up we have to try and find another setting because I know this bike has much bigger potential. All we can do is carry on working hard and giving it our all, so let’s see where we end up tomorrow.”

-SIC Racing Team facebook.

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