Danny Kent – Donington Diary
Hey,
After the Sachsenring race I was invited to go to Peter Clifford’s house in the Czech Republic to do some leisure activities with Sturla, Mathew, Daniel Ruiz, Robin Barbosa, Jake Gagne and Nico Thoni, we all had great fun and had some great experiences, iId just like to say a big thanks to Peter clifford and his family and Stefan for inviting me and allowing me to have a great time. After the 3 days we had in the Czech Republic, we all flew to Donington Park hoping for a good weekend.
Free Practice: My aim was to learn the track and get some good lines, I wasn’t concentrating on the lap times, I just needed to be comfortable with the bike and circuit. I had a couple of issues with the rear suspension settings and I felt it needed to be changed for QP1; but all in all it was a good Free Practice and I was happy overall.
QP1: It was very overcast and I knew it was going to rain through the session so I knew I had to get a fast lap time in early on, which paid off. I did a pretty fast lap time which put me into 1st position, then it started to rain, so by the end of the session I had qualifyied in pole position.
QP2: It was a wet and slippery qualifying, and it was my first time riding in the rain at Donington Park so I was just getting comfortable with the wet setting and the circuit. Every lap I did I felt more and more comfortable with the bike but I knew that it wasn’t possible for someone to beat my lap time from QP1. So I was just taking my time and I didn’t want to crash.
Race: Starting on pole position I felt comfortable with the bike and was feeling determined to do a good race. The beginning of the race went OK, but then unfortunately I started having some problem with the gearbox, (hard to change gear and also randomly jumping out of gear). By the end of the race I ended up in 8th position, which is not a great result, but I managed to gain some points.
I am really looking forward to Brno, it is one of the tracks that I already rode last year with the Red Bull MotoGP academy. It is a fast and flowing circuit. My aim is to make a good qualifying session and hopefully have 2 great races as Brno is one of my favourite circuits.
Many thanks, Danny Kent #52
