Honda LCR rider Carlos Checa finished today’s free practice for the Chinese Grand Prix at Shanghai in 10th position, but only half second off the provisional front row for Sunday’s race. In foggy and overcast conditions, Checa worked through a variety at set-up options in search of improved side grip and corner speed and is confident of further progress ahead of tomorrow’s qualifying session.

In a bid to give Checa a more comfortable feeling on the 315 kph main straight, the LCR team are experimenting with various fairing modifications this weekend. Today some small, carbon fibre wind deflectors were tested but were not the solution. Tomorrow, crew chief Ramon Forcada will try a modified windscreen and different fairing position on the RC212V.

CHECA: Tenth - 2’01.881

CHECA: “At this track with such a long and fast straight (1200 meters) we should be satisfied with this performance but we are still looking to improve. I need more side grip and rear stability and this will help increase my mid-corner and exit speed. It is no surprise we are down on top speed compared some rivals and Honda are fully aware of this, so our focus must be to work on our braking and turning performance. Hopefully the weather will stay constant so that we can make further progress tomorrow.”

For the 250cc Grand Prix, Eugene Laverty came through a day of learning a new circuit with an impressive performance, improving his lap times by four seconds between free practice and afternoon qualifying.

LAVERTY: “This is a much more difficult track to learn than Istanbul last week, there are many long corners with the bike on the side and it is not easy to find the right track position. At the end I followed some riders and learnt a lot.”