Third Row For Kornfeil And Fifth Row For Fahmi At Phillip Island

Phillip Island, Australia – Saturday 17th October

Circuit: Phillip Island
Circuit Length: 4.4 km

Bike #63 – Zulfahmi Khairuddin
Qualifying: P14; 1’37.193 (DRY) – 19 laps

Bike #84 – Jakub Kornfeil
Qualifying: P8; 1’37.011 (DRY) – 17 laps

Looking strong all weekend DRIVE M7 SIC Racing Team rider Jakub Kornfeil continued to show his dominance around the Australian Circuit with a superb second place finish in this morning’s free practice three. Carrying on his form the Czech rider held onto a front row position for the majority of the forty minute qualifying session. Despite pushing hard to improve his time in the final minutes of the session, Kornfeil achieved a strong eighth position as the chequered flag came out.

Undeterred by his previous lack of track time, Zulfahmi Khairuddin worked hard to quickly get up to speed, relentlessly challenging the top fifteen during free practice three. Feeling confident and hungry for more, the Malaysian rider tirelessly put in the laps during qualifying, improving both his rhythm and pace along the way. The 23 year old will start tomorrow’s Australian Moto3 Grand Prix from fourteenth place.

Mark Woodage – Technical Director

“Jakub’s performance today has been very good. He finished second in this morning’s practice and overall he’s shown good rhythm and a strong pace here from the start. In the qualification there was a big group of people that our riders weren’t in, so Jakub and Fahmi decided to work together, which was great to see. They went out alone and avoided all the traffic, which was smart thinking. For Jakub to qualify within the first three rows was our objective, so we are pleased for this. We know we could have possibly been on the first or second row today but he’s strong here and he can do well, so we’ll take eighth position. He’s looking good, so in the race anything is possible. Fahmi has done a great job after missing out on the first free practice and then in free practice two half of the session was wet, so for so little track time, we are pleased with his result today. He started on the back foot but he’s shown his progression by catching up with the top fifteen so quickly. He worked well with his teammate today and he’ll start the race from the fifth row. With a strong start he is certainly capable of a top ten position tomorrow. He’s confident, he’s happy and he also has a good pace alone. I’m really looking forward to see what both riders can achieve.”

#63 Zulfahmi Khairuddin

“We had quite an unlucky start to this weekend missing out on FP1, then in FP2 I tried to build my rhythm step by step but the result was not so good. This morning we had a really good set-up and we finished the session just one second off P1. For qualifying we kept the bike the same and it felt good. I think today I can be happy with our qualifying position. For sure tomorrow there will be a big group, so I know the most important thing is that I am strong from the start; I need to be more aggressive with other riders and not let them past in the corners. I know there will be a lot of battles in the race but I just have to keep my head down and push hard. On the long straight you can make up a lot of positions using the slip-stream, so I hope to take advantage of this too. I really enjoyed working with Jakub today in qualifying and together we helped each other. I feel confident with the bike, so now I will have a good rest and prepare myself for tomorrow.”

#84 Jakub Kornfeil

“I’ve felt very good all weekend; with the bike and with the team, I think we are doing a good job. However today I wanted a bit more, so I’m a little disappointed. I don’t know if I did something wrong or if something wasn’t quite right with the bike in qualifying; we still have to look into this, but our target was a little higher for today, especially the one I set myself; I didn’t reach it and this is why I am a little bit unhappy. Overall the bike is working well and I’ve set some very good lap times alone, so I believe we have a strong race pace. The first few laps will be the most important in tomorrow’s race; I think there will be a big group of riders together, so it will be important to go with them and fight hard from the beginning. Today we are eighth but I know we can do even better.”

-SIC Racing Team facebook.

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M7 Energy Drink (European Version) also now available.