MZ OFFICIAL PRESS RELEASE

Promising start at the Grand Prix of Australia: MZ factory riders Anthony West and Max Neukirchner took 13th and 16th place on the first day of practice and were only 1.2 seconds behind the best time of Stefan Bradl. West, who runs a new livery in all-Australian colours at his home Grand Prix, was surprised by the poor track conditions with lots of bumps and plans to adapt his set-up in a way that will give him additional front end grip. Neukirchner, who has sweet Phillip Island memories of two podium finishes in the World Superbike category, was slowed by other riders on the track when it counted in the last minutes of the session. But he only needs minor adjustments on his bike to be ready for the qualifying battle on Saturday.

Anthony West – 13th in 1.35,235 min.:
“I am happy with my position, even though the afternoon session was a bit more difficult than I expected. On this track it’s hard to get the set-up right as it is so fast and flowing and so different from all the others we are racing on. The biggest problem is that there are so many bumps on the track. There must have been a lot of car races. Therefore we need to find a bit more grip on the front. We know exactly what to do and I’m confident that we’ll be able to improve tomorrow!”

Max Neukirchner – 16th in 1.35,278 min.:
„Phillip Island is one of my favourite tracks and I have nice memories since I got a second and a third place here during my time in the World Superbike championship. Practice on our Moto2 bike has also been good so far, I’m just not happy to be down in 16th place. The lap times are close together as usual, but I’d still really like to break into the top ten for a change. A lot of riders were waiting around for slipstream, which made it even more difficult to get a good lap. But I’m sure we’ll be able to speed up tomorrow!”

Ergebnis Freitag:
1. Stefan Bradl / GER / Kalex / 1:34,039 min.
2. Alex deAngelis / RSM / Motobi / + 0,427 sek.
3. Andrea Iannone / ITA / Suter / + 0,529 sek.

13. Anthony West / AUS / MZ-RE Honda + 1,206 sec.
16. Max Neukirchner / GER / MZ-RE Honda + 1,239 sec.

 

Pictures at: http://mz.mediarace.de
 

OFFICIAL MZ PRESS RELEASE

MZ factory riders Anthony West and Max Neukirchner turned the Grand Prix of Japan at Motegi into a thriller and battled from poor grid positions to the maximum possible. West, who was qualified in 22nd place, fought his way to twelfth spot. Team-mate Max Neukirchner also pulled all stops and recovered from 29th on the grid to take 18th place in the end.

“The trend is positive”, said MZ CEO Martin Wimmer. “Anthony did lap times at around 1.53.0 minutes, which was seven tenths of a second faster than in practice. He was able to match the pace of the race leaders before he got a clutch problem. Without this problem, he could have finished in the top ten!”
 

Anthony West – 12th + 20,815 sec.:
“I had a good start but then I got caught up with another rider who came from the inside line all the way to the outside. Then there was a crash in turn two, which helped me a bit. I then was able to fight and make up ground, catching people. My lap times where faster than in qualifying, which was good, but unfortunately I got a problem with the clutch. The bike was hopping then and in the corners I started losing the front, so I just held my pace until the end. Now I look forward to my home Grand Prix in Australia where I need a good result!”

Max Neukirchner – 18th + 39,609 sec.:
“In the first corner of the race, I was in third gear instead of second. I didn’t want to shift back again and lost lots of places on the next straight. Then the crash in turn two happened right in front of me. I had to take avoiding action and lost places again. I also struggled with a lack of grip on the first laps. It gotter better as the race went on and I did my best lap time in the second-last lap. But all in all, it was a tough race: I think the balance of the bike wasn’t right, because we were here for the first time and didn’t have any data!”

Result Race:
1. Andrea Iannone / ITA / Suter / 43:25,007 min.
2. Marc Marquez / SPA / Suter / + 1,999 sec.
3. Thomas Lüthi / SUI / Suter / + 3,686 sec.

12. Anthony West / AUS / MZ-RE Honda + 20,815 sec.
18. Max Neukirchner / GER / MZ-RE Honda + 39,609 sec.

Standing after 14 of 17 Races:
1. Marc Marquez / SPA / Suter / 235 Pts.
2. Stefan Bradl / GER / Kalex / 234 Pts.
3. Andrea Iannone / ITA / Suter / 157 Pts.

19. Max Neukirchner / GER / MZ-RE Honda / 35 Pts.
23. Anthony West / AUS / MZ-RE Honda / 27 Pts.

OFFICIAL MZ PRESS RELEASE

MZ factory rider Max Neukirchner experienced a frightening moment during qualifying for the Japanese Grand Prix, when he found himself without a front brake on his last exit and crashed in the second corner of the track. When the technicians checked the bike, no brake failure could be detected. MZ CEO Martin Wimmer eventually found the explanation for the mystery. "When you change the front wheel, you have to push the brake pads back and the brake needs to be primed through pulling the brake lever a couple of times before it is fully functional again. It looks as if the brake wasn’t primed when Max went out for his last exit. Since he was still slow in turn one, he didn’t need the brake there. But when he got to turn two and pulled the lever, nothing happened. It was an unfortunate chain of events!"

In the meantime, team-mate Anthony West qualified in 23rd position. Happy with the handling of his bike, the Australian noticed a slight disadvantage accelerating out of the corners. But West is nevertheless ready to fight for points – and hopes to overcome his slight disadvantage with the slipstream battles in the race.

Anthony West – 23nd in 1:53.715 min.:
“I am happy with the handling of the bike, this will be perfect for the race. Our race package is not the problem. I can do my pace on my own and I know I will be stronger in the race. The bike feels fine and it does what it should. Every time I follow someone on track I feel I am as strong as they are. My braking, my cornering, my topspeed are all the same than the others. But there are a few corners on the track where I lose under acceleration, which happens not only here at Motegi but on the other tracks as well. Everything else is working perfectly."

Max Neukirchner – 29th in 1:53.969 min.:
“We had a technical problem that forced me to go straight. I crashed and took Sergio Gadea out with me, which I am very, very sorry for. We had just mounted fresh tyres and I was sure about my chances to go faster and to get a good grid position. The top 15 were out of reach but a top 20 position would have been possible. A lot of things are still new to me here at Motegi and we had a lot of set-up issues over the weekend. My goal is to ride a decent race despite my poor grid position!”

Result Saturday:
1. Marc Marquez / SPA / 1:52.067 min.
2. Thomas Lüthi / SUI / Suter / + 0,193 sec.
3. Andrea Iannone / ITA / Suter / + 0,356 sec.

23. Anthony West / AUS / MZ-RE Honda + 1,648 sec.
29. Max Neukirchner / GER / MZ-RE Honda + 1,969 sec.


Pictures at: http://mz.mediarace.de

OFFICIAL MZ PRESS RELEASE

MZ factory riders Anthony West and Max Neukirchner took 22nd and 29th place on the first day of practice for the Japanese Grand Prix. West still needs more corner speed and better acceleration out of the turns. Neuirchner, a novice on the twisty 4.8 kilometre Twin Ring Motegi, is in search for more braking stability.

Anthony West – 22nd in 1:54.397 min.:
"This result is not too bad considering the problems we had. Our set up isn’t perfect yet. We are not too far away, it’s just a few small things we need to improve on, such as corner speed. There are sections I really feel we are loosing time, so I think if we can fix that problem I should be able to ride in the 1.53’s, no problem. It's not a big thing, the bike is just not turning that well and as soon as I go on the throttle I am down on acceleration on the first 100 meters or so. The hard tyre compound seems not to work at all and I've heard from different people that they had the same problem. I just could not do a time on it, so in the first half of the session I was kind of messing around and after that, with the softer option, I was able to immediately pull out a time. Tomorrow morning we are just going to burn some hard tyres and save the softer compound for the qualifying and the race!“

Max Neukirchner – 29th in 1:54.904 min.:
"Motegi is a thrilling track, especially going through the two tunnels. I am starting to find my way around even though we are still far away from the front runners at this stage. But considering that it is my first time here, we can be satisfied. In order to catch up and find another second or two, I have to improve by 70 per cent and the team has to contribute 30 per cent. We need more stability under brakes and the bike should also keep the cornering lines a bit better. I also was a bit tired today due to jetlag, so I will go to bed early and hope to be well rested tomorrow!”

Result Friday:
1. Tom Lüthi / SUI / Suter / 1:53.002 min.
2. Stefan Bradl / GER / Kalex / + 0,180 sec.
3. Yuki Takahashi / JPN / Moriwaki / + 0,352 sec.

22. Anthony West / AUS / MZ-RE Honda + 1,395 sec.
29. Max Neukirchner / GER / MZ-RE Honda + 1,902 sec.


Pictures at: http://mz.mediarace.de
 

OFFICIAL MZ PRESS RELEASE

At the Moto2 Grand Prix of Aragón, MZ factory riders Anthony West and Max Neukirchner overcame the problems of previous races and battled both into the points rankings. Starting from 21st place on the grid, West was hunting down his rivals in convincing fashion. By mid-race, he passed his German team-mate for the first time and continued to fight with Neukirchner until the chequered flag. Whereas West crossed the line in eleventh positon, just twelve seconds behind race leader Marc Márquez, Neukirchner dropped back behind another rival, Frenchman Mike di Meglio, and finished the race just fractions later in 13th position.

Neukirchner was delighted with his own performance, but not impressed with the fighting spirit of his own team-mate. “We are happy that we finally managed to take points again. But it’s true: Instead of fighting with Max for ten entire laps, Anthony could have tucked into Neukirchner’s slipstream and they both could have scored a top ten finish”, said Neukirchner’s crew chief Marco Nicotari. West’s crew chief Warren Willing didn’t take part in the discussion. “I am happy because we were competitive from start to finish, even though there is still lots to do considering the 12-second gap to the race winner. As far as racing goes, both Max and Anthony went for it. It’s up to them to judge their moves on the track.”

Anthony West – 11. + 12,108:
"I am happy. I got a bit worried on the grid, as the generator for the tyre warmers wasn't working. I was afraid of starting with cold tyres, but my start was still very good and I passed a lot of riders on the opening laps. I had a long gearing so I had to ride on the outside lines to keep my momentum and to be able to out-accelerate the others. I had a hard battle with Aegerter and it was also tough to fight with Max. In the end, we caught the group in front of us and it got a bit messy in the last two laps. But I am very happy with the way the bike worked in this race!”

Max Neukirchner – 13. + 12,180:
“My result is good, but it could have been even better. Unfortunately, Anthony slowed me for the whole second part of the race. He desperately wanted to finish ahead of me, which is okay. But it was a bit too much for my taste – more than once, both of us were close to crashing out o the race!”

Result Race:
1. Marc Marquez / SPA / Suter / 40:20.575 min.
2. Andrea Iannone/ ITA / Suter / + 2,466 sek.
3. Simone Corsi / ITA / FTR / + 2,574 sek.

11. Anthony West / AUS / MZ-RE Honda + 12,108 sek.
13. Max Neukirchner / GER / MZ-RE Honda + 12,180 sek.

Standing after 13 of 17 races:
1. Stefan Bradl / GER / Kalex / 221 Pts.
2. Marc Marquez / SPA / Suter / 215 Pts.
3. Andrea Iannone/ ITA / Suter / 132 Pts.

19. Max Neukirchner / GER / MZ-RE Honda / 35 Pts.
23. Anthony West / AUS / MZ-RE Honda / 23 Pts.


 

Pictures at: http://mz.mediarace.de
 

OFFICIAL MZ PRESS RELEASE

Despite dense traffic and slower riders that kept destroying his rhythm, MZ factory rider Max Neukirchner qualified in 17th place for the Grand Prix of Aragón and now aims at World Championship points in the Moto2 race on Sunday. “It is the usual thriller: Max gets to a track that is new to him, catches up in a very short time and is competitive on the second day”, said his crew cief Marco Nicotari and aimed even higher than his rider. “The way Max is riding here, I strongly believe in a top ten result!”

A top ten result in qualifying had been the goal of Neukirchner’s Australian team-mate Anthony West, who shone with seventh place on the first day of practice. But due to unexpected engine trouble, he improved his lap time only marginally on day two and dropped back to 21st on the grid.

Max Neukirchner – 17th in 1.54,753:
“I managed to improve quite a bit in comparison to yesterday, but I wanted more. I wasn’t much faster in qualifying than in this morning’s free practice session, but I should have gone three or four tenths of a second quicker. Maybe I tried to push a bit too hard, because I was too late on the brakes several times and subsequently ran wide on the corner exits. I then changed to the harder tyre compound and could have gone faster, but got stuck in traffic and had to pull in after four laps as I was running out of fuel. On my last exit, I went with the softer tyre again but couldn’t do more than 17th. But even though, we are well prepared with our bike ad I’m confident to get some points in the race!”

Anthony West – 21st in 1.55,047:
„I am not sure why, but for some reason the engine ran a lot hotter than yesterday. We changed the gearing this morning, but even though it is shorter than before, the bike doesn’t pull near as well as yesterday and the motor temperature exceeds 90 degrees even though it wasn’t as hot as yesterday. I had to ride as hard as I could to get a decent lap time. Other than that, I am still confident for the race: Every time I am following someone I feel that I could go faster and overtake!“

Result Saturday:
1. Marc Marquez / SPA / Suter / 1:53.296 min.
2. Julian Simon / SPA / Suter / 1:53.980 min.
3. Scott Redding / GBR / Suter / 1:54.004 min.

17. Max Neukirchner / GER / MZ-RE Honda 1:57.159min.
21. Anthony West / AUS / MZ-RE Honda 1:55.433 min.
 

OFFICIAL MZ PRESS RELEASE

MZ factory rider Anthony West started the Grand Prix of Aragón with a bang and scored a promising seventh place in the first free practice session on Friday. “With a further improved set-up and four hot laps, he climbed higher up in the classification and took third place in the afternoon”, joked his crew chief Warren Willing when the whole paddock was in fact eerily quiet: A power failure due to a broken transformer that took several hours to be fixed, caused a cancellation of the second free practice in the afternoon.

Even though the organiser is trying to make up for the lost track time with a revised schedule for Saturday, West’s German team-mate max Neukirchner still fell victim to the cancellation. As one of the few riders who didn’t race at Aragón before, Neukirchner is still a step behind his rivals in the search of the right set-up for the demanding five-kilometre-track and finished day one in 28th position.

Anthony West – 7. in 1.55,433:
“I am happy with my start. I felt good on the bike immediately and even though the set-up wasn’t at a 100 per cent, I was able to do good lap times. The best thing is that we found a bit of additional acceleration, which I was lacking at the last race in Misano. Now the bike really starts to handle and feel like my own again. The credit for this goes to Warren Willing. He really knows what he is doing when it comes to setting up a bike the right way. When he makes a change, he not only makes the bike better, but he is also able to tell the difference and to explain what the bike is going to do on the track. Most of the time, he is spot on with his explanations, which gives me a lot of confidence. I can now concentrate on riding the bike instead on all the problems I had. A few races ago, I was mentally finished, but now I am starting to be happy again. It’s strange that we are learning new things about the Moto2 bike so late in the season, but we do!"

Max Neukirchner – 28. in 1.57,159:
"It’s a real pity that the second session got cancelled today. We tested here back in November, but it was extremely cold and windy. The only thing I learned was where to turn right and where to turn left, but the right set-up for this track is still unknown territory for us. The cancellation is a real set-back and I just hope that we can find the right settings very quickly tomorrow and we won’t look too bad!"

Result Friday:
1. Marc Marquez / SPA / Suter / 1:54.857 min.
2. Aleix Espargaro / SPA / Pons Kalex / 1:54.880 min.
3. Andrea Iannone/ ITA / Suter / 1:55.160 min.

7. Anthony West / AUS / MZ-RE Honda 1:55.433 min.
28. Max Neukirchner / GER / MZ-RE Honda 1:57.159min.
 

Pictures at: http://mz.mediarace.de
 

The MZ Moto2 Team had an unlucky race day at the sunny Misano. After a very good start for both of its riders, some problems did not allow the German team to score some points in the Moto2 World Championship. Max Neukirchner was 14o. fighting for the top 10 when an electrical problem made him lose positions and at end re-enter the pits. Anthony West was about to be 13o, also fighting for top ten, but his tyres did not him allow to make a better result and the Australian rider finished the race at the 27o. position. Next Moto2 World Championship round at Aragon, Spain on September the 18th.