Over the weekend we had the first round of the season at Donington Park. Things got off to a good start, ending Free Practice 1 with the second fastest time. Over the next two practice sessions we tried many changes to maintain our place near the top of the time sheets.
With the bike being so new, there are still many set-up changes I want to try so I was happy enough after qualifying 4th.
In race 1 I was wide at the first turn, losing a few places and dropping to 8th at one point. About 6 laps in I settled into a good rhythm. I improved my lap times consistently, working my way through the field right to my last lap pass that brought me up to 3rd and my first podium with the new R1.
In race 2, I had a better start and got away with the front group. By lap 5 I had started to settle into a consistent pace and was moving forward until Kiyo high-sided in front of me and I run off track to avoid crashing into him. This meant I dropped back to 12th with a 9 second gap to the front. So with 11 laps to go, I began working my way through the field, improving my lap time until I worked my way back to 6th, only 4.5 seconds off the lead.
Overall I think the team are happy with our progress. The bike is performing well and we are only in the early stages of development.
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