Qatar 2011

At the end of the first lap Danny had made up 6 positions slotting him into 17th and began to settle down, getting into a rhythm and pacing himself for the 18-lapper on the 3.3 mile circuit.

It didn’t take long for the bikes to start stringing out around the circuit and on lap 3 Danny slotted into 13th, but it was a ding-dong battle with the other riders around him and positions were constantly changing.

By mid race Danny had dropped back to 16th where he eventually took the chequered flag.

Eventual race-winner Nico Terol, riding an Aprilia, ran away with the victory by coming home more than 7 seconds in front of the second rider, German Sandro Cortese also on an Aprilia.

Danny just missed out on the points but wasn’t too deflated.

 Danny said:

“I’m not too disappointed it’s the bike and teams’ first outing in the 125cc class and there’s a long way to go, so we’ll sit down and study the data from the race to see where and what we can improve for the Jerez race in Spain in 2 weeks’ time.”

More pictures from Qatar have been added here.

Saterday evening brought us the first Qualifying session of the new season.

Unfortunately everything didn't go according to plan, conditions were warmer than previously experienced, despite the time being 6.00pm the temperature was up above 25C.

Danny was pushing hard but found front end grip to be lacking and as a consiquence Danny qualified 23rd with a time of 2'10.608, quilifiying 0.006 of a second behind his team mate Marcel Schrotter.

Danny said:

I was pushing right to the limit but i think we were slightly caught out by the temperature, so dissapointed but not down hearted.

Overall we continued to progress and we were recording quicker times throughout the session. Naturally i hoped to qualify closer to the front but this is our debut race and we are stronger than this result shows.

For the first time the race warm up session also took place on the Saterday evening.

The team analyised the data from the qualifying session and continued to develope the bike.

The temperature had droped a little by the 9.20pm start time, but it was still 23 C.

From the start Danny was quicker, running throughout the first 15 mins of the 20 min session in the 13th/14th position.

Then with 5 minutes to go Danny found himself in the gravel trap as a result of an accident that happened behind him as they entered a corner. An already crashed bike collected Danny and finnished his session.

Danny said:

It was just one of those things, a racing accident that happens to you every now and again, unfortunate but unavoidable.

But on a much more possitive note, I was running well inside the top 15 throughout the session and again we continued to progress with the setup of the bike.

The first 125cc race of the season is tomorrow at 7.00pm (local) where Danny will be looking to score Mahindra Racings first World Championship point, in their debut race.

More pictures have been added here.

2011 Season starts under floodlights

The 2011 season kicked off today, firstly with the traditional 'Class of 2011' group photographs and then, at 6.00pm (local) with the first sesssion of FP1.

With the temperature still hovering around 18 C, Danny and his team mate Marcel, took to the track for the 'serious' stuff.

Initially assesing the state of the track progress was made establishing a base set up for the bike. Danny completed three runs on the track, steadily increasing his pace.

Very quickly the first session of 40 mins was over.

At 8.55pm the second session began (FP2) and Danny was consitantly running in the top 15, improving his pace with each run.

Danny said:

'It's great to be back on the bike, we had a good couple of sessions this evening. The pre season tests at Valencia, Estoril and Jerez were disrupted by the conditions and we only had a few days of serious testing. Today we have made further steps forward.

The bikes top speed is very good and now we have to keep moving forward developing the balance and tuning the bike to the track.

I'm very happy with the way the team is working and already looking forward to moving forward again tomorrow.'

The third free practice is tomorrow evening, starting at 7.00pm

Pictures from Qatar can be seen here.