2010 MotoGP Championship – Round 16 – Phillip Island – Day One
Australia’s Wayne Maxwell has enjoyed a positive first day in the Moto2 World Championship, completing today’s opening Moto2 practice session at this weekend’s Iveco Australian Motorcycle Grand Prix at Phillip Island in Victoria.
Despite constant rainfall that delayed the day’s proceedings, Victorian-based Maxwell finished the first hour-long session of the weekend in 19th position and confident that he has what it takes to work his way up the leader board from there.
“To roll out of pit lane and be part of the grand prix paddock alongside the world class riders was a great feeling,” 27-year-old Maxwell said. “I feel comfortable on the bike already, so to mix it up with them over the weekend would be even better.”
Maxwell stunned in the opening minutes of the session by immediately featuring at the top of the time charts in wet conditions on debut in his one-off GP appearance, however his inexperience and lack of time on the Matteoni Racing grand prix race bike showed as the circuit dried in the closing minutes.
“It was a tough day with the weather, but it was the same for everyone,” Maxwell reflected. “It started out wet and then we had a bit of time in the dry so that will help us in any condition on Sunday.”
With time on both a wet and dry circuit now under his belt, Maxwell will be hoping for consistent conditions tomorrow morning when the spectacular Moto2 brigade enters practice two, before qualifying for Sunday’s race is contested in the afternoon.
“We plan on making some changes in the practice session in the morning to help refine the set-up of the bike, and then come qualifying I’ll go for it and try to put it up the front somewhere.”
Maxwell’s fastest lap was a 1:38.355 around the scenic Phillip Island Circuit, just 2.060 seconds off the leading pace of Italian former MotoGP pilot Alex de Angelis. In a sign of Maxwell’s performance, newly crowned world champion Toni Elias was just ahead of Maxwell in 15th position with a 1:38.207.
Maxwell’s Moto2 endeavour is proudly supported by Honda Australia, Milspec, Construct Concrete Services, ASF Printing, Longlife Roofing and Caprice.
| Moto2 FP1 |
| 1 15 Alex DE ANGELIS RSM JIR Moto2 Motobi 266.6 1’36.295 2 45 Scott REDDING GBR Marc VDS Racing Team Suter 260.7 1’36.313 0.018 / 0.018 3 10 Fonsi NIETO SPA Holiday Gym G22 Moriwaki 264.9 1’36.697 0.402 / 0.384 4 60 Julian SIMON SPA Mapfre Aspar Team Suter 262.1 1’36.769 0.474 / 0.072 5 29 Andrea IANNONE ITA Fimmco Speed Up Speed Up 264.4 1’37.021 0.726 / 0.252 6 16 Jules CLUZEL FRA Forward Racing Suter 266.0 1’37.223 0.928 / 0.202 7 63 Mike DI MEGLIO FRA Mapfre Aspar Team Suter 262.9 1’37.229 0.934 / 0.006 8 44 Roberto ROLFO ITA Italtrans S.T.R. Suter 259.0 1’37.296 1.001 / 0.067 9 71 Claudio CORTI ITA Forward Racing Suter 261.3 1’37.356 1.061 / 0.060 10 12 Thomas LUTHI SWI Interwetten Moriwaki Moto2 Moriwaki 261.0 1’37.427 1.132 / 0.071 11 65 Stefan BRADL GER Viessmann Kiefer Racing Suter 258.7 1’37.596 1.301 / 0.169 12 17 Karel ABRAHAM CZE Cardion AB Motoracing FTR 260.9 1’37.606 1.311 / 0.010 13 25 Alex BALDOLINI ITA Caretta Technology Race Dept I.C.P. 264.1 1’37.610 1.315 / 0.004 14 6 Alex DEBON SPA Aeroport de Castello – Ajo FTR 258.1 1’38.022 1.727 / 0.412 15 24 Toni ELIAS SPA Gresini Racing Moto2 Moriwaki 258.9 1’38.207 1.912 / 0.185 16 77 Dominique AEGERTER SWI Technomag-CIP Suter 259.9 1’38.233 1.938 / 0.026 17 72 Yuki TAKAHASHI JPN Tech 3 Racing Tech 3 262.5 1’38.243 1.948 / 0.010 18 55 Hector FAUBEL SPA Marc VDS Racing Team Suter 262.4 1’38.344 2.049 / 0.101 19 47 Wayne MAXWELL AUS Matteoni Racing Moriwaki 259.1 1’38.355 2.060 / 0.011 20 35 Raffaele DE ROSA ITA Tech 3 Racing Tech 3 265.8 1’38.360 2.065 / 0.005 |
