The weather forecast was right and the day started at Phillip Island without rain and with a little bit of sun, though with an ambient temperature of 12º that caused many crashes in Moto3 and then also in Moto2. The final position of our riders was in some degree due to some crash of the riders in front, but mostly to their honour and competitiveness.
Our riders started from different rows of the grid, 4th for Schrötter and Pons from 7th. And until mid-race it was the German who was ahead of the Spanish rider in the competition between the two Argiñano & Ginés Racing Team riders. But in the second half, things changed and Áxel went ahead. The Catalan rider led a group of 5 that also included Schrötter, Vierge, Simeón and the Champion Zarco, who finished behind our riders.
They fought for the 9th position. They had Corsi 5 seconds ahead and they were not able to catch him in the end, though they did reduce his advantage by 2 seconds. In the end, the 8th and 9th place for the AGR riders was due to Pasini’s crash a couple of laps before the chequered flag.
The team is gathering its things in Phillip Island to go to Sepang, where the title could be decided. Tomorrow, Monday, we will have a day of rest in the island, but in the evening, we will go to Melbourne to take the flight to Malaysia. There we will have the last race of the Asian tour, the penultimate of the year.
Áxel Pons: I think we had more pace
“I’m happy with the result. Yesterday we made a mistake and we paid it today. We recovered positions, but starting so far back it was impossible to get to the leading group, though I think we had pace for more. I’m happy with the weekend, overall, and I want to keep this path for the last two races of the championship”.
Marcel Schrotter: The bike was dangerous under acceleration
“Another difficult day, because we want more, but at least we finished in the top 10. At the start, I lost some position and I couldn’t get the line, so I had to fight and recover. I had some trouble during the race, which sometimes delayed me and sometimes the bike made a dangerous move when accelerating. In fact, it was a difficult weekend, but I was able to stay in this group and overtake another 3 rivals. It’s important to be in the group and feel that you are in a competitive situation”.
Kiko Giles @MotoGPKiko