KUALA LUMPUR: MotoGP rookie Hafizh Syahrin Abdullah enjoyed an overall positive opening day to the season at the Qatar Motorcycle Grand Prix on Friday.
He will be aiming for a better show in the qualifying later on Saturday.
Hafizh did well to emerge the fastest rookie in the first free practice (FP1) yesterday after clocking one minute and 56.544s but was only marginally faster in FP2 (1:56.454s), where he settled for 22nd from 24 riders under the floodlights of the Losail International Circuit.
The Monster Yamaha Tech3 rider said grip issues held him back in FP2 but is confident of making more progress in FP3 later today.
"In the first free practice, I had a lot of confidence and felt really comfortable on the bike. I’m not sure why my feeling was not as good as in the second session," said the 23-year-old on Friday.
"We used the soft tyre for the first time (in FP2), but couldn’t improve a lot. I could not get good grip, especially from the rear tyre. In the end, we went one tenth of a second faster than in the first session.
"Now, we are trying to understand the situation, I know, that I have to stay calm and that I have to try to understand the telemetry (data), I’ll speak with my guys tonight.
"Anyway, I’m very positive. For tomorrow (today), I aim to improve further and give a strong fight to the other rookies."
Hafizh, who was signed as a late replacement for the ill Jonas Folger, had earlier this month suffered a minor crash during testing at the same circuit on the soft tyres.
The Ampang-born is hoping to finish his debut MotoGP race in the points, though stressed that it will not be an easy goal to achieve.