Effort goes unrewarded for Asia Talent Team

2015-06-22 08:17
All three riders put in great performances during the Moto3 Junior World Championship round in Barcelona, without getting the results.

Kaito Toba, Yuta Date and Adam Norrodin continued to show good progress at the third round of the Moto3 Junior World Championship during the two races on Sunday at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya.

Toba started the first race from an encouraging tenth on the grid, with a good chance to push on and get a good result, but unfortunately crashed out of the race. The Japanese rider had his chance to show his class in the second race though, as he was involved in an intense battle for fourth with a group of eight riders. With glory in his grasp, unfortunately on the last lap he fell with just three corners to go, missing out on deserved top four finish. Nevertheless, he recorded the second fastest lap of the race, improving on his time in practice dramatically and showing just how far he has progressed over the weekend.

Norrodin lined up on the grid in an excellent ninth, but was unfortunately involved in an incident with another rider at the very first corner and crashed out of race one. In the second race, the higher track temperature impacted the performance of his machine, and he crossed the line in 18th.

Yuta Date managed to claim his first Moto3 Junior World Championship points in race one as finished in a creditable 11th. In the second race, he was also hampered by the different conditions affecting his setup, but managed to finish in 17th.

The fourth round of the FIM CEV Repsol will take place in just two weeks time on 4-5 July at Motorland Aragon.

Kaito Toba: “Personally this weekend performance was not that bad for me. It's true that I miss all the points but I learned a lot on Sunday. In the first race, I cannot say so much because I crash early but, in the second race I was fighting for 4th place till the end, my lap times were good and I was very confident with my motorbike. The negative part is that I do not have any points, on the other hand the positive part is that I improved a lot and now I'm competitive and can be on the top.”

Yuta Date: “The last two races were a disaster for me, but on Sunday in Catalunya I did a lot better and improved my lap times compared to the top riders. The first race I take a few points so I think this is the good part. In the second one, I missed all the points, but I learn more and more so next race I will do better.”

Adam Norrodin: “We had a good weekend because I started in a good position on the grid and I had a good lap time. In the first race I was not lucky, because another rider touched me and I fell during the first lap. In the second race I was more concentrated but the weather conditions changed and it was very hot, so it was a bit harder for me and I could not do the race I wanted to. I cannot wait for the race in Aragon and I will do my best.”

Alberto Puig - Project Leader: “Well in terms of results, it was not a good weekend; clearly because we crashed a lot, but we are very happy with Toba's performance in the second race. He was battling for the top group all race and normally, when you are young you can make mistakes, it's clear. In the end he made two, but we are happy with the potential he showed this weekend and we support him to continue pushing. Because the only way to learn is to make mistakes, it’s all part of the process. Sure he will try to understand and analyse what happened for the next race and he will look for where he can improve. For Norrodin and Date, it was a little bit more difficult. They were trying a little bit more in the races, but they were not so lucky in the first laps and they never really got into a super-fast rhythm, so let's hope they will do better next time.”

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Source: www.asiatalentteam.com

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