MotoGP 2005

Australian rider Anthony West has qualified in eighteenth position on the provisional grid for Sunday’s Czech Republic Grand Prix.

It was a difficult opening day at the fast but bumpy Brno circuit with West crashing his Red Bull KTM during the one hour session.

He was unhurt and is hoping for a much stronger run in tomorrow’s final qualifying session which will determine the grid for Sunday’s 20 lap race.

The road racing grand prix series resumed today after a four week summer holiday break. Spanish rider Dani Pedrosa set the fastest time in first qualifying just ahead of countryman Jorge Lorenzo.

The KTM team focus today was to adjust engine and chassis settings for the fast and bumpy Brno circuit. The 250cc motor is still in the early stages of development and further progress is expected in tomorrow’s two hours of practice and qualifying.

Anthony West #14 - Eighteenth - 2’06.457 - “It was a strange crash and it surprised me because I was on the gas and already exiting turn one when I lost the front which is unusual. But I was having trouble with this in the morning session and we made some changes and I tried to go faster but it didn’t work. My pace is good on corner entry, I can stay with the other factory bikes, but they just pull away on the exit.

Harald Bartol - Technical and Managing Director - “We spent some time adjusting the jetting and engine settings and found an improvement but unfortunately Anthony crashed which cost us some time. The bike is running in the same specification as the German GP but we have some new parts to test here at Brno on Monday after the race.”

125

Red Bull KTM riders Mika Kallio and Gabor Talmacsi engaged in a thrilling battle for provisional pole position at Brno this afternoon.

In the final moments Kallio was the fastest rider, by just 0.17s, over his Hungarian teammate in sunny and warm conditions. Both Kallio and Talmacsi raced hard in a tight group over the final three laps.

The Red Bull KTM pair finished first qualifying 1-2 on the grid, ahead of Italian rider Mattia Pasini (Aprilia) in third with Sandro Cortese (Honda) completing the provisional front row.

However misfortune struck Julian Simon who crashed his KTM machine and finished tenth fastest at the end of the 30 minute session. Simon went to the medical centre for treatment to a left ankle injury at the end of the session.

All three Red Bull KTM riders are using a new engine specification introduced at Brno this weekend.

Red Bull ADAC KTM Junior riders Michael Ranseder and Stefan Bradl are again entered as wild cards for the Czech GP. Ranseder finished 19th and Bradl in 23rd place in a huge field of 41 riders.

MIKA KALLIO #36 - First - 2’08.875 - “The new engine is very fast and everything went well today. The only problem is that he bike feels nervous on turn-in to some corners and we need to look at the settings for this, and also for the rear through the fast corners. Brno is a bumpy track and it seems to get worse every year.”

GABOR TALMACSI #14 - Second - 2’09.045 - ”It was a very nice ‘race’ at the end with Mika and the other riders over the final three laps -- a good warm-up for Sunday! The bike ran strongly and we have no big problems only trying to deal with the bumps which I think will make it difficult to match the lap record pace set here a couple of years ago.

JULIAN SIMON #60 - Tenth - 2’10.339 - “I think I have sprained my left ankle so I am going for treatment at the Clinica Mobile but I’m sure I will be OK to ride tomorrow.”

HARALD BARTOL - Technical and Managing Director - “The latest evolution of the KTM 125cc motor has been prepared for this race and each rider - Mika, Gabor and Julian - have been supplied one motor each. The spare bikes are running the previous engine specification. So far no problem but it seems grip levels were down today and all three riders were complaining about the bumps.”

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