Scott Redding thwarted by bad weather in Estoril

Scott Redding’s hopes of building on his excellent Valencia Moto2 test performance recently were dashed by appalling weather at the second official test in Estoril this week.

The three-day session was virtually a complete washout with heavy rain and gusting winds battering the Estoril track.

Even when the rain eased, the track was slow to dry and any productive testing was made difficult by a persistent fierce wind blowing in from the nearby Atlantic coast.

Marc VDS Racing rider Redding, who topped the timesheets in Valencia earlier this month, said: “What a disappointment. After a successful test at Valencia I was looking forward to coming here to Estoril and continuing the work on the bike, but the weather put paid to that.

“The first day was difficult, but the second day I didn’t even bother going out the track was that bad.

“On the third day we had a bit of a break in the weather, but the track didn’t really dry out properly between rain showers and it was only in the final hour we got anywhere close to dry conditions. Even then the track was really slippery after all the rain.”

As a result of the adverse weather conditions, Redding’s squad has hastily arranged an additional test in Jerez next week.

The Marc VDS Racing squad is in Jerez testing the latest spec of the Suter/BMW project that the Belgian team plans to race in the new 1000cc MotoGP class in 2012.