QUEDGELEY'S Scott Redding was 19th on the timesheet today, after using both free practice sessions ahead of the Japanese Grand Prix for tyre testing.

The 21-year-old Briton spent most of the two sessions on the harder option tyre, as opposed to the Open Class only soft option rubber, as he worked to get the most from the tyre in case it’s needed for Sunday’s race.

Redding will switch to the soft tyre tomorrow, when he’ll work with his crew to find a set up to better exploit the characteristics of the softer rubber.

Redding: “I’m reasonably happy with today’s progress as, this afternoon, we managed to close the gap to the fastest of the Open Class Hondas, which is positive.

"We went with the hard tyre for most of the two sessions today and we were expecting to be even closer once we switched to the soft, but we couldn’t really get it to work. Tomorrow we will change the suspension set up to better exploit the soft tyre.

"It was good to get some laps in on the harder tyre today because we used the soft option for the race in Aragon and it didn’t really work for us, so now I’m trying to push with the harder tyre.

"However, today I didn’t get the full potential of the softer tyre, so we will see better tomorrow which is the best option for the race and then make more laps with that.”