Scott lines up on the sixth row of the grid for the Qatar GP

Making his qualifying début astride the Aprilia RS-GP, Scott Redding did well today ahead of tomorrow’s season opening Qatar GP.

He finished his best lap at 1’55.380 which translates into the seventh best time of the session, seventeenth on the starting grid and therefore the sixth row. The same consideration goes for him concerning the chances of improving his position tomorrow in a race that promises to be very uncertain, with a lot of riders very close together in terms of gap.

SCOTT REDDING
“We’re struggling a bit with grip this weekend, both on the front and on the rear. To be honest, I was worried, but today in FP4 we managed to take a step forward in this area and that gave me a better feeling for qualifying. In Q1 I used the soft front tyre, which I had never done in practice, and it actually worked quite well. Unfortunately, we didn’t have the second bike ready with the same type of tyre, so I did the second outing with a used front tyre. However, the soft is only good for one lap, so I was unable to improve as much as I would have liked. I should also point out that this is my first race weekend with the new team and there are still a few mechanisms that need to be smoothed out. We have a good race pace, despite the fact that the track conditions are completely different than the tests.”