BY Sports Reporter/Doha
 

QMMF Racing Team riders Julian Simon and Anthony West produced a great effort in qualifying for the Grand Prix of the Americas in Texas. on Saturday.
Spaniard Simon, who turned 28 a week ago, earned the applause of his crew in the garage when he pushed his Speed Up prototype to seventh place, only 0.373 seconds behind Belgian Xavier Simeon on pole position.
The 33-year-old West, Simon’s Australian teammate, had a big crash in the third free practice session on Saturday morning, but bounced back when it counted in qualifying. Taking advantage of a last minute change to the front fork set-up of his Speed Up bike, he moved up to 13th position on the grid, just three tenths of a second adrift of Simon. Both riders are now aiming high for the race on Sunday and will pull all stops to battle for top ten positions.
Simon said: “I am very happy about my lap time. We put a new fairing on the bike for this qualifying session, which changed the feeling of the bike and improved it in certain areas. It worked well altogether and allowed me to build confidence for the race. Our only problem is a little bit of front end chatter which we will try to fix in the warm up session tomorrow.
“A third row position is good for us and with a good start, I should be able to fight with the front runners and confirm the good performance of the bike with a strong result. The only question mark for all of us is the weather, but I feel well prepared for all conditions, wet and dry. I want to congratulate my team because after some difficulties in the free practice session this morning, my bike was perfect when it counted in the afternoon,” the Spaniard added.
West credited the crew for fixing the bike after morning’s crash. “This morning we changed a small part on the front. The tyres I went out with were quite old and when I tried to push anyway, I ended up having a big crash in turn two. This wrecked the bike, but my crew did a great job fixing it and I went out again for the last few minutes of the session. My time was not too bad, but it could have been better because I didn’t have a rear brake, which was the only thing the guys couldn’t fix in time,” the  Australian said.
“We made another change for the last laps, which made all the difference, because now, the bike feels really good. I was able to do a decent lap time and I am happy with my position on the grid. From this position, I should be able to fight for a top five place in the race,” he added.

 

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