Anthony West admits that he is keen to see what he can pull out of the hat at Estoril for this weekend's Portuguese Grand Prix after a confidence-boosting run at the Spanish Grand Prix two Sundays ago.
The Australian looked stronger at Jerez than he has for a while and his raised belief, both in himself and the Kawasaki ZX-RR, showed that his fighting spirit is far from on the wane. However, the 27-year old knows that Estoril has not always been his most favourable venue, with the track notoriously hard on tyres. His first MotoGP outing at the circuit in 2007 proved tricky as his traction suffered, but he battled through to finish twelfth.
"Estoril is a good track to ride," West admitted, "It's got a very long straight and the rest is made up of tighter sections, some of them really tight. It's always going to be hard getting a MotoGP bike around there and, last year, rear grip was a problem for me. Mind you, we played around with the ZX-RR's settings at Jerez, after the recent Spanish GP there, and made some real improvements. Overall, it was much better, so I'm looking forward to seeing what we can do at the weekend."
This year's race moves from the end of the season to the start, and could provide dramatically different conditions to those which saw Valentino Rossi battling Dani Pedrosa for the win. Rossi's eventual victory was particularly significant for Casey Stoner, who was made to wait another week to clinch the title, but underlined Estoril's reputation for producing some of the closest racing in the MotoGP championship's history.
While not elevating himself to the ranks of potential winner, West is hoping for another step in his own performance following a 13th place finish at Jerez.
"I'm feeling a bit more upbeat now," the Aussie confirmed, "My result at Jerez, and my feeling on the bike, were much better than at Qatar, so I'm feeling better prepared now to tackle the next race with a bit more confidence. Also, my fitness levels are still going up and I'm finding it much easier to go the full race distance without backing off. I'm more consistent and that's reflected in my lap times."
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The Australian looked stronger at Jerez than he has for a while and his raised belief, both in himself and the Kawasaki ZX-RR, showed that his fighting spirit is far from on the wane. However, the 27-year old knows that Estoril has not always been his most favourable venue, with the track notoriously hard on tyres. His first MotoGP outing at the circuit in 2007 proved tricky as his traction suffered, but he battled through to finish twelfth.
"Estoril is a good track to ride," West admitted, "It's got a very long straight and the rest is made up of tighter sections, some of them really tight. It's always going to be hard getting a MotoGP bike around there and, last year, rear grip was a problem for me. Mind you, we played around with the ZX-RR's settings at Jerez, after the recent Spanish GP there, and made some real improvements. Overall, it was much better, so I'm looking forward to seeing what we can do at the weekend."
This year's race moves from the end of the season to the start, and could provide dramatically different conditions to those which saw Valentino Rossi battling Dani Pedrosa for the win. Rossi's eventual victory was particularly significant for Casey Stoner, who was made to wait another week to clinch the title, but underlined Estoril's reputation for producing some of the closest racing in the MotoGP championship's history.
While not elevating himself to the ranks of potential winner, West is hoping for another step in his own performance following a 13th place finish at Jerez.
"I'm feeling a bit more upbeat now," the Aussie confirmed, "My result at Jerez, and my feeling on the bike, were much better than at Qatar, so I'm feeling better prepared now to tackle the next race with a bit more confidence. Also, my fitness levels are still going up and I'm finding it much easier to go the full race distance without backing off. I'm more consistent and that's reflected in my lap times."
crash.net