Wednesday was spent repairing the bike following the crash at Estoril as the bike remains in Spain between rounds. It has been mid-late 30s all week so not only has Sam had to get to grips with another new track, he has had to adjust to riding in extreme heat on 55+ degree track temperatures.
Sam’s preparation ahead of the round was tested on a track walk on Wednesday night, allowing for a fast transition to competitive times within the first session on Thursday morning.
Following the two 30 minute sessions on the technical Montmelo track on Thursday, the bike setup changes continued as we went into timed practice on Friday.
Sam progressed through qualifying, working on his own until the last run where he joined a pack and resulted in an improved time on a 2.05.2 which placed him in 11th on the starting grid, and 5th in the speed trap.
Due to the extreme heat, the officials reduced the number of laps for the race by 3. Following a difficult start on long gearing in race 1, Sam dropped to the back of the grid and unfortunately collected Luke Fitchett and 2 others as he attempted to make up time into turn 1, but stayed upright and returned to the back of the leading group by the end of lap 1. A mistake on lap 2 saw him lose the group. Losing the group impacts lap time by 3 seconds and is impossible to recover from. This resulted in a lonely race to the flag, where he crossed the line in 12th, with a lap time 2 seconds slower than his qualifying time.
No warm up and a change in wind direction on Sunday meant going into the race with a different, untested set up. Grid position on race 2 is determined by the results of race 1 so he lined up in 12th to start. A massive improvement on the start meant he came round in 13th with the pack and he was showing real pace with a 2.04.0.
Unfortunately, the Estoril crash had weakened elements of the exhaust which caused a misfire, resulting in a near high side into turn 2 and meant he lost the pack again. Moto4 is such close racing that Sam was joined by other riders who had been jostled out of the pack and an incredible battle for the rest of the race ensued, with Sam crossing the line in 14th merely 0.02 seconds behind Alessio Arnold. Both Sam and Alessio achieved 2nd fastest top speeds of the weekend at 183.6kph, 0.4kph off the top spot.
Overall, Sam enjoyed riding the track. He felt like he performed well following his big crash only 3 weeks before. Barcelona is a favourite track for testing with the majority of Sam’s fellow competitors and this performance by Sam has shown him to be able to bridge the gap quickly, only being 0.7 off the fastest lap of the race.