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MotoGP
2005 - Round 11 - Brno MotoGP Qualifying - Anthony West Report August 27th, 2005
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MotoGP
2005 - Round 11 - Brno MotoGP Qualifying - Anthony West Report August 27th, 2005
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| Australian motorcycle
rider Ant West has struggled with the steering on his Red
Bull KTM in high speed corners in the lead-up to the 250cc
Czech Republic Grand Prix on Sunday. The 24-year-old from the Gold Coast clocked a best lap time of 2-mins 5.621-secs in the second and final qualifying session at the Brno circuit on Saturday. The time left him 23rd on the grid for the 10th round of the 250cc world championship. West rode a total of 69 laps around the 5.4km track in the two practice and two qualifying sessions on Friday and Saturday. He was 18th fastest in the opening qualifying session on Friday. West crashed during the first qualifying session, but was not injured. The race at Brno will be West's third start on the newly-developed KTM 250. The machine made its debut in the rain-affected British Grand Prix at Donington Park on July 24, where West finished second. He was 10th in the next championship round a week later at the Sachsenring in Germany. Jorge Lorenzo claimed pole position as fastest qualifier at Brno on a Honda. He was followed by fellow-Spaniard and championship leader Daniel Pedrosa, also riding a Honda, and Australia's Casey Stoner on an Aprilia. West has made a total of 81 grand prix starts in the 125cc, 250cc, and 500cc classes since 1998. He has five top-three podium finishes in the 250cc class, including one victory, in the Dutch Grand Prix at Assen in 2003. ANT WEST QUOTES: "I can't get the bike to steer properly in the high speed corners. It doesn't feel balanced. This track is much different to Donington (Park) and the Sachsenring – the corners are faster and wider here. When the bike is on angles a long time in the faster corners it pushes the front. All the weight is on the front and when you open the gas there's no weight on the rear – it's spinning up early in the corner when you open the throttle. I'm losing time in the middle of the corners and on the exit. I'm much further back on the grid than where I want to be, but this is a new bike and we need to race at these different types of tracks to lean what needs to be improved. The problems I'm having here didn't show up in the last couple of races. I crashed in qualifying yesterday when I lost the front near the exit of the first corner. The bike slid out from under me. It was strange. This weekend we're running the same engine as at Sachsenring, but we are staying here (Brno) to test some new stuff on Monday."
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MotoGP Championship
2005
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