BRNO - MOTO3 RACE

2018-08-05 09:25
Circuit: Automotodrom Brno
Circuit Length: 5.4 km

PETRONAS Sprinta Racing rider Adam Norrodin experienced a bitter end to his Czech Grand Prix today, despite making solid progress throughout the race.
Starting from 21st position, the Malaysian rider worked hard to fight his way up into the points.
Looking set to cross the line in a solid 14th place, Norrodin made an unfortunate error on the penultimate lap, mistaking it for the end of the race. Prematurely rolling off the throttle saw Norrodin immediately drop to the back of the field. Quickly realising his mistake, he attempted to re-join the race but pushing too hard, crashed out before the chequered flag.

Starting from last position, Ayumu Sasaki faced a difficult task at hand in todays 18-lap race. Dropping down into 25th place on the first lap, the Japanese rider pushed hard to close the gap to the group ahead. Despite maintaining the same pace as the leaders, without a slip-stream Sasaki was unable to break-away from the riders behind, resulting in a final three lap battle to cross the line in 22nd place.

Johan Stigefelt - Team Manager

“This weekend both riders have been going quite well. We had a good race from Adam today; he was pushing quite hard and was in the front group; around two seconds from the lead all the time, which was good to see. Unfortunately, on the penultimate lap he made a mistake and then on the last lap he crashed out. It’s a real shame because he was well in the points today and fighting hard. He rode well this weekend, so it’s a shame we don’t leave here with any points because it would have been well deserved.
For Ayumu it was a bit tougher in the race. He suffered quite a bit from his crash yesterday; his confidence was a bit low. He stayed the same gap from the leaders for the majority of the race but it was still too far; he lost too much during the first two laps. Its been a hard weekend for Ayumu but the important thing is that he is healthy and he didn’t hurt himself in the crash yesterday.
Now we have to move forward.
Its good that we have a race next weekend; we have to comeback with both riders and be up there in the points.”

#7 ADAM NORRODIN - DNF

“Firstly I have to say how sorry I am to my team; I made such a stupid mistake today and I cannot apologise enough for it.
I felt so comfortable on the bike this morning when we went out for morning warm-up and I went into the race feeling really confident, despite our starting position.
I made quite a good start in the race and immediately gained a few positions. I was pushing really hard and I had made it up to 14th place. Then on the second last lap I made the biggest mistake that I have ever made; I thought it was already the last lap and so I closed the throttle after the start/finish. I lost all positions. I’m so sorry to everyone for this.
I’m glad that we have another race straight away next week because I want more than anything to repay my team for this mistake today. I don’t want to disappoint them again. I will focus more and try to push even harder next week.”
#71 AYUMU SASAKI - P22

“This morning I felt good with the bike; we improved from FP3, so I felt positive about the race. The problem today was that we started from the very back. I didn’t make a good start either and ended up missing the front group by around two seconds. I was making the same lap time as them by myself but still it was too difficult to catch them without a slipstream. My lap times were consistently the same as the leaders until the last three laps because this is when I ended up having a battle with another rider behind me and we lost the group ahead even more. I’m really disappointed that we couldn’t keep the same pace and take some more positions. Now we have to keep working hard and stay focused for Austria next week.”

Source: SIC Racing Team

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