Hafizh Syahrin (Monster Yamaha Tech 3) produced his best Friday result of the season at the Monster Energy Grand Prix České republiky after going fourth fastest on the combined timesheets.
“First, I cannot believe what I did in the two sessions on the first day,” said an ecstatic Syahrin, who continues to impress in his rookie MotoGP™ season. “In the second session I was trying to improve my time from this morning and I believed that I could improve from this morning when I went out, and the team tried to give me the best setup,” continued the 24-year-old.
“In the end, I had a good feeling on the bike. I tried a hard tyre on the front and also the rear. At the beginning I wasn’t so confident with the hard tyre because I had the big crash in Austin with that tyre but anyway, with the hot conditions like this I made a good step.”
Interestingly, Syahrin then admitted he tried to copy how Jorge Lorenzo (Ducati Team) used to ride at Brno when he was on a Yamaha. “I tried to ride smooth. We know that Lorenzo was very fast with Yamaha here and I tried to copy his style to ride at Brno.”
The former Grand Prix podium finisher currently leads the charge for the ‘Rookie of the Year’ honours and reflecting on his outstanding opening day in the Czech Republic, the Tech 3 rider says he and the team are fully motivated to claim that accolade come the end of the season.
“Now, it looks like the team have full motivation to take the title of Rookie of the Year… I’m really motivated and I hope this weekend I can take some big points and try to make a big gap between the second rookie in the Championship.”
Can the ever-positive Syahrin build on his fantastic Friday pace and secure an automatic Q2 spot in FP3 on Saturday morning?