Moto2: Too much grip causing tyre problems for Kent

Former Moto3 world champion Danny Kent says that the design of the new Suter chassis that he’ll ride for Kiefer Racing in Moto2 this year seems to favour cooler conditions, after a strong opening night in Qatar left him able to make significant improvements over his form from last week’s Jerez outing to finish ninth overall.

Using a different shock mount, he says that too much rear grip means that it takes cooler conditions to use the bike to it’s full ability.

“We’ve got a different shock mount compared to where it is on the Kalex, and that seems to give us a lot more grip – but sometimes that causes us problems too. We saw in Jerez that when temperatures got too warm we struggled a bit more. A new rear would push the front too much, and the hot track temperatures couldn’t take it.

“With a used tyre, I’m really confident, but it seems that as soon as we put in a new tyre the problems appear. We need five or six laps with it before it comes in and the bike gets a little easier to ride.”

However, the Brit is nonetheless pleased with the potential of the bike so far – and says that there’s still time to improve before they go racing.

“We only improve by about 0.2 when we put in a new tyre, which isn’t good enough for qualifying, but for the race it could be good towards the end, as long as we don’t lose too much at the start. But we’ve still got another day of testing and a lot of practise sessions before qualifying to find a solution to it.”