In perfect conditions at the Circuito de Jerez, DRIVE M7 SIC Racing Team rider Jakub Kornfeil got straight down to business claiming eighth position in Free Practice One and only just missing out on another top ten finish in the afternoon’s session.
Feeling confident and comfortable on his #84 KTM machine, Kornfeil worked hard on his race pace, consistently improving his lap time as the day progressed and closing the gap to first place to just 0.745s in FP2.
Following some initial issues with the set-up of his #63 bike in FP1, Zulfahmi Khairuddin had a more difficult start to his Spanish Grand Prix. Despite improving his dry setting from the morning session, the Malaysian rider struggled to get into a good rhythm around the 4.4km circuit and was unable to significantly better his lap time.
#63 Zulfahmi Khairuddin
FP1: P32; 1’50.253 (DRY) – 16 laps
FP2: P33; 1’49.987 (DRY) –16 laps
“Today I am disappointed with myself. This morning we had a few problems with the bike, then we fixed them and the bike was good to make a fast time but I was not able to make one perfect lap. I know what my problem is but I keep doing it. It’s always been difficult in Jerez for me but I’m staying focussed and I will study more with my crew this evening so I can be stronger tomorrow. We have to remember our target, to be good in the qualifying as this is the most important thing. I will work even harder to get a better pace than today.”
#84 Jakub Kornfeil
FP1: P8; 1’48.106 (DRY) – 18 laps
FP2: P11; 1’48.001 (DRY) – 17 laps
“This morning we started with the same set-up that we had in Argentina and it worked well. With the bike I am happy and I am feeling confident and with the tyres we are using we have been quite clever. For qualifying we still have some good tyres, which is very important. This has let us down before so now we are more prepared, which is good. Following FP2 we are looking in another direction with regards to the electronics. We weren’t able to improve this today, so for sure there is still work to do tomorrow morning before qualifying. In FP3 we will try to set up the bike for this and we will see what we can do. The gap to the first rider is quite small, just seven tenths, so today has been a positive start and I’m confident that we can continue this momentum.”
