Malaysian Moto2 rider, Azlan Shah Kamaruzaman suffered an early setback in the Argentina Grand Prix (MotoGP) opening practice held at the Termas de Rio Hondo Circuit.
The Idemitsu Honda Team Asia rider was hoping to break into the top-20 after coming in 23rd fastest in the morning practice (FP1) with 1’48.743s but a faulty engine saw him finish the second session (FP2) with 1’47.003s instead.
While he did improve on his lap time, Azlan was still 1.937 seconds off French man, Johann Zarco who led the way with 1’45.066s followed by Jonas Folger and Dominic Aegeter who posted 1’45.093s and 1’45.143s respectively.
Azlan’s teammate and Moto2 title contender, Takaaki Nakagami came in fourth quickest overall with 1’45.254s while Maverick Vinales rounded up the top five with 1’45.331s.
“I like this circuit a lot. It is fun to ride and challenging but unfortunately we struggled with engine problems towards the end of FP2, to which we were supposed to put in a fast lap,” said Azlan.
“Additionally, I think my riding here is far from perfect. I have yet to find a good raceline and proper braking points. Hopefully we can solve all these issues by the third practice tomorrow morning and go all out on getting a good start position in the qualifying,” he added.
