MCNEWS.COM.AU - The ultimate in motorcycle news MotoGP 2006 - Round Five - Le Mans - Day 2 Report - Anthony West
May 20th, 2006
 MCNEWS.COM.AU - The ultimate in motorcycle news

Australia’s Ant West has qualified 13th for tomorrow’s 250cc French Motorcycle Grand Prix at Le Mans.

West will start the fifth round of this year’s 250cc world championship series from the fourth row of the grid after clocking a best lap time of 1-minute 40.961-seconds on a non-factory Kiefer-BOS Racing Aprilia in today’s second and final qualifying session.

The 24-year-old set the time on his 16th of 21 laps in the session. His time was 1.228-seconds behind the pole position-winning Humangest Racing Honda of Italian Andrea Dovizioso.

West had been 11th fastest after yesterday’s opening qualifying session. He rode a total of 86 laps in the two practice sessions and two qualifying sessions yesterday and today.

West, winner of the 250cc Dutch Grand Prix at Assen in 2003, finished ninth in the previous two rounds of this year’s championship at Istanbul in Turkey and Shanghai in China. He was forced out of the opening two rounds of 2006 because of a broken spark plug at Jerez in Spain and gearbox problems at Losail in Qatar.

ANT WEST QUOTES: "The track has been changed this year. They have slowed down the first corner, which used to be a ‘flat-out’ kink. The first chicane, which goes left-right, is also tighter than before. We have been struggling to get a good bike set-up here. Yesterday I didn’t have enough grip in the rear because we ran with the hard springs that were on the bike from the last race in China. Today we tried a softer spring and the bike was better. The wind is making things difficult this weekend – sometimes when you turn in the wind blows you away from the corner. I’m starting the race further back than where I’d like to be, but I pushed as hard as I could in qualifying and took some risks to do my best lap time. The plan for the race tomorrow is to get through the first corner and the chicane without any dramas and take it from there. The first corner is always crazy here because everyone is bunched up, especially when you’re starting mid-field like I am.”
 

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