Difficult start for the Asia Talent Team in FIM CEV Repsol

2015-05-01 08:10
Kaito Toba, Yuta Date and Adam Norrodin experienced the high level of competition in the series, which is considered an essential stepping-stone in a rider’s progression to the World Championship.
Intermittent rain showers affected track conditions and hampered the riders as they tried to adapt to the demanding Portimao circuit. It was Toba and Date’s racing debut in Europe, while Norrodin had some knowledge of the track, having raced at the circuit last year during the FIM CEV Repsol.

The first qualifying session was conducted almost entirely on a wet track, with riders only able to switch to slick tyres for the final few minutes. By contrast the second session was a lot dryer, and allowed riders to dramatically improve their times. Date finished in 17th on the combined timesheets, while Norrodin and Toba were 18th and 19th respectively.

Despite rain in the morning on Sunday, the 16-lap race took place completely in the dry after the mixed weather throughout the weekend. Toba went on to take the team’s first Moto3 Junior World Championship point by finishing in 15th place, while Date was involved in an intense battle with Loris Cresson and Max Kappler, before crossing the line in 18th. Unfortunately for Norrodin, he made a couple of mistakes at the start of the race and in an effort to recover from this, crashed out and was forced to retire.

The Project Leader of the Asia Talent Team, Alberto Puig: “From a sporting point of view, the race was not good; our riders did not perform the way we expected. We have to learn from this, it was the first time for them in Europe and it was more difficult than they expected. It’s true we were here last week in testing and it was not so bad, Toba was faster last week than this week, it is strange but he had three crashes, the last was really bad, and maybe this affected him a little bit. In any case we have to check what happens, the riders must understand that to race in Europe it is a little bit different than racing in Asia, but we believe they can make the step and for the next race they must understand a little bit more what’s going on here in Europe. We believe they can improve. The target is to be as close as we can to the front riders.”

Kaito Toba: “Today’s race was not good because I didn’t have a good time and position, next race we will make some changes and try to improve our position”

Yuta Date: “I failed a lot and I could not do well at all. I want to take the lessons I learnt from today's race to the next race in Le Mans and will try to get good results.”

Adam Norrodin: “This race was not so good for me, I had a bad start, the first lap was difficult and I tried to overtake but I made a mistake, I used too much front brake and after I crashed, in the next race I will try a better mentality”

The next round of the FIM CEV Repsol will take place at Le Mans on 15/16 May, when the Moto3™ Junior World Championship race will be held as part of the Monster Energy Grand Prix of France.

Source: MotoGP

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