Valencia Test December 2011
The Macau Grand Prix in November marked the last race of the 2011 season for Richard. However preparation for the 2012 season began almost immediately afterward with a 2 day test at the Valencia Ricardo Tormo circuit in Spain in the middle of December. The Spanish Moto GP circuit is a great place to test during the winter months due to the mild temperatures compared to circuits in the UK and Japan at that time of year.
Richard was doing the test with Carlin motorsport, the team Richard contested the 2011 Grand Prix De Pau with in May. Richard missed the first 2 days of the test but performed very well on his first day in a car which was very different to his usual Japanese spec car. Once he got into the rhythm of the circuit.Richard was very fast on older tyres He had some work to do on the new tyres though as the British Championship spec Cooper tyres require a very different technique to the Japanese Yokohama tyres Richard is used to.
There were fewer drivers on day 2 so this was a perfect opportunity for Richard to work on the technique required with the new Cooper tyres.and he was much quicker than he had been on day 1.
Richard felt that this was a very useful test. He made significant improvements as he became familiar with the tyre , the car and the circuit. All of this experience will be useful going into next year.
