ANOTHER STEP AT CATALUNYA FOR MAHINDRA

Montmelo, Barcelona - Saturday, 2 June, 2012: The white-and-red Mahindra machines will start side by side for tomorrow's Catalunyan GP, with a big hill to climb but with fresh impetus for the task, after new engine parts that arrived for this race.

Marcel Schrotter (19, from Germany) and English team-mate Danny Webb (21) qualified 30th and 31st on the grid, with lap times behind the leader ultra-close, and a few tenths of a second making a disproportionate difference to positions in the highly competitive Moto3 class.

Both had hoped to do better, but blazing heat in the afternoon robbed the new engine of some of the power it had shown in the morning, and neither was able to match the lap times set in the earlier free practice session.

The good news is the improved reliability of the latest revised single-cylinder 250cc engine, still in its infancy up against a grid made up almost completely of well-developed over-the-counter production racers. The Mahindra MGP-30 is an all-new, all-independent machine at the start of its development path.

The Mahindra chassis has earned praise from the riders from the first tests; both say they can make up time under braking and in the corners. The engine is now in only its fifth race, and is already challenging the racing establishment.

Tomorrow's race is the fifth of 17 rounds in the new-this-year four-stroke championship. The Mahindra team is the first Indian squad in world championship racing.

MARCEL SCHROTTER - 1'54.829
This morning was better, the afternoon was harder. I'm a bit disappointed. I tried 110 percent and Danny's and my times are so similar. My feeling in the corners is much better and I can stay with the other bikes. The new engine was good, but we still lose a little in acceleration.

DANNY WEBB - 1'55.168
The position is mostly my fault: I put in new tyres at the end and I was looking for a fast group to go with ... but it was too late, and the chequered flag came out. We've still got work to do, but with the engine improved we can start getting other stuff sorted, especially the engine mapping for power and for engine braking. You always want it to be faster, but step by step we are definitely moving in the right direction.