AIRASIA-SIC-Ajo’s, Muhammad Zulfahmi Khairuddin wrapped up his pre-season preparations in style when he ended the final tests in Jerez in fifth place, before heading to Qatar for the opening race of the Moto3 season early next month.

Fahmi, who dropped to 14th Wednesday, bounced back to set the fifth fastest time of the day, 1.47,491 following the lead set by the two other KTM riders, Sandro Cortese and Danny Kent, who finished fourth and second respectively for Red Bull KTM Ajo Factory Racing.

With his performance, Fahmi managed to narrow the gap with the top half since he was only 83thousandth of a second behind the third fastest rider, Romano Fenati from Team Italia FMI.

“I am really pleased with the whole test season and especially with the tests we had here at Jerez on Monday and Wednesday.

“After many experiments we found really good settings for the bike for both the frame and for the engine,” enthused Fahmi.

The consistent top 10 lap times he the Banting born 20 year old has set during the 3 test sessions Khairuddin has continued the test season from the situation he had in the end of the 125 cc.

Team leader Aki Ajo was obviously delighted with Fahmi´s improving speed and his overall good attitude.

“Overall, I am pleased with his performance in the 3 tests in Valencia, Jerez and again in Jerez. However, one should remember that we are just in the midst of this new project.

“We have worked hard but there is still lot to do and we still need to analyse a lot of things in order to learn more from this bike and from this project.

“Luckily the weather was good here in Jerez. We managed to collect a lot of good data especially from Tuesday´s and Wednesday´s tests.

Spanish rider Maverick Viñales (Avintia Racing Moto3) underlined his status as one of the main title favourites for 2012 with the fastest time, leading the way with a best effort of 1’46.838. The Spaniard set his time in the mixed morning session, during which he also crashed without injury, and was the only rider under 1’47".

Jerez, Spain.

The official IRTA-tests of Moto3-class. Combined result list of three test days:

1. Maveric Vinales Spain, Avintia Racing, FTR Honda 1.46,838

2. Danny Kent Great Britain, Red Bull KTM Ajo Factory Racing, KTM + 0,424

3. Romano Fenati Italy, Team Italia FMI, FTR Honda + 0,570

4. Sandro Cortese Germany, Red Bull KTM Ajo Factory Racing, KTM + 0,599

5. Zulfahmi Khairuddin Malaysia, AirAsia-SIC-Ajo, KTM + 0,653

6. Niccolo Antonelli Italy, San Carlo Gresini, Honda + 0,921

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