Norrodin And Sasaki Ready To Fight Hard For Home Crowd

Sepang International Circuit, Malaysia – Saturday 28th October
Circuit: Sepang International Circuit
Circuit Length: 5.5 km
Bike #7 – Adam Norrodin
QP: P15; 2’13.847 – 12 laps
Bike #71 – Ayumu Sasaki
QP: P14; 2’13.792 – 12 laps
SIC Racing Team riders Adam Norrodin and Ayumu Sasaki will line up on the fifth row for tomorrow’s Malaysian Grand Prix, after qualifying in 14th [Ayumu] and 15th [Adam] place.
 
Johan Stigefelt – Team Manager
“The weekend has started very well for Adam and there have been a lot of positives throughout the three practice sessions, so it’s a shame that qualifying didn’t go quite as we would have liked, or expected. We’ve seen from the start that Adam has a very good pace here and can do fast lap times on his own, but in qualifying you need that little bit extra and unfortunately today we didn’t find it. In any case Adam starts in a decent position tomorrow and I’m confident that regardless of where he lines up, he will make a strong start, get to the front group and fight with the leaders.
Ayumu has been struggling a little bit more in the free practice sessions here, so to finish fourteenth today, he has done a good job. The starting position is so important for him because as we have seen before he can be very strong in the races, if he can just make a good start and have a solid first few laps. If he does this I think he will be fighting up there in the top ten as well.”

#7 Adam Norrodin
“I’m disappointed because we were capable of a much better qualifying today. All weekend we have been strong and I have felt confident in myself and with the bike. I was sure we could do really well today.
I wanted so much to qualify at the front for my home race, to make sure that I would be in the first group tomorrow. The session started well for us and we were always in the top ten; I did all my lap times alone too but in the end this is what prevented me from improving any further because all the riders in the group were fast and passed me on the final lap. This is Moto3 qualifying though, it’s very tough, very competitive and the smallest things can make the biggest difference.
Fifteenth for me is not that bad but I expected more here at Sepang because we have the pace. Nevertheless the weekend is not over and the most important day is tomorrow. This is my only focus now; I have to really concentrate and prepare myself to fight hard; I can’t let the front group go.
 
#71 Ayumu Sasaki
“Today was a difficult qualifying. In FP3 this morning it had been raining so the track was half wet and I couldn’t really push. In terms of our set-up we started QP pretty much from zero, like FP1, so to finish 14th is not so bad but I’m not happy about it. We have these unlucky times and now we just have to work hard to improve for tomorrow. Warm Up will be very important because I want to change the bike settings a little bit so that I can try to be up at the front in the race. I hope we can have a good race for the Malaysian fans.”

-SIC Racing Team facebook.