Jerez, Spain – 2 May 2015: Scott Redding will start tomorrow’s Spanish Grand Prix from the fourth row of the grid, after struggling with a lack of front end grip in the sweltering conditions of qualifying at Jerez.

Tenth place in this morning’s free practice session secured the Team Estrella Galicia 0,0 Marc VDS rider a place in Q2, but with the temperature soaring ahead of the fourth and final free practice session, the track conditions changed significantly.

Redding struggled to find enough grip to give him the confidence in the front needed to turn a fast lap at Jerez, a problem that continued throughout qualifying despite changes to the set up of his Honda RC213V.

Similar problems were encountered and overcome during testing in Sepang earlier in the year, so the team remain confident of finding a solution for tomorrow’s race, which the weather forecast predicts will be run in slightly cooler conditions than today.

Scott Redding: 12th – 1’39.825
“I don’t really have much to say about today. The feeling with the bike was good this morning, but from the start of the final free practice there was just no grip at the front at all. As soon as I got on the edge of the tyre the front was just going away from me, in almost every corner. I just didn’t have any confidence that the tyre was going to grip at all; it felt like it was going to tuck everywhere. We made changes to the set up for qualifying, which brought a small improvement, but we need to make a much bigger step for tomorrow if we’re to get the result we’re capable of here.” 

Michael Bartholemy: Team Principal
“The track temperature was extremely high here this afternoon, and it seems we are affected more by this than our rivals. It was similar in Sepang, probably the only other circuit where the track temperature gets as high, so we have data to work from when it comes to finding a solution for the race tomorrow. It’s a shame because Scott made a strong start with the updated bike yesterday, which makes the issues in qualifying all the more frustrating. It’s likely that the race will be run in similar conditions tomorrow, so we need to go all out tonight if we’re to fix the problem.”