Well I couldn’t have asked for more for the opening round of the UAE Sportbikes Championship. With a bit more luck we could have won the two races, but I will happily take one win and a second place finish!
It all started in free practice on Thursday where I was topping the time sheets for the 600s. I was working so hard on my consistency for the race duration and it helped a lot. I noticed that Abdulaziz was not on his usual pace which made things easier to focus on, as he would be the man to beat.
After a little drama in the qualifying on race day, I managed to stick the bike on the front row in third position, having set wrong pressures for a very cold track. Still, I was ready to fight for the race.
I had a good start and managed to battle it out with Ahmed Al Muyini and Nasser Al Shaiba. I knew I had better pace than the Kawasaki rider, and planned my move accordingly. Unfortunately the yellow flags came out three laps from the end, and thus couldn’t overtake him where I wanted, so I left it till the last lap and tried a lunge on the final turn, but my exit was not that strong and I finished second behind Ahmed within 0.160 of a second! I was happy to break my own lap record on the national circuit with a 1.31.6s.
I had a different plan though for race two and after the team worked on some suspension adjustment to give me a better feel from the front, we set off with an improved start and I went a bit aggressively at turn one to make sure I was behind Nasser Al Shaiba on his Yamaha. I felt really good two laps in and the tires were working perfectly. I made my move after a few laps and tried to put the hammer down! Watching my board lap after lap, I noticed a huge gap already to the guys behind, and my consistency training was paying off. I just needed to bring her in the first spot safe, so I took my time on the last lap and rode safely to find my guys waiting in the pit lane to celebrate!
A great start to my 10th championship season! I have to thank everyone from Al Futtaim Honda to all my sponsors who stuck with me for this year. I have been training hard all summer in Europe and it looks like it has paid off so far. Roll on round two in December!
