Gonzalez Earns Hard-Fought Championship Points at COTA

2023-04-18 10:39
Correos Prepago Yamaha VR46 Master Camp‘s Manuel Gonzalez showed persistence in the Grand Prix of The Americas Moto2 race, riding to a solid 10th place. The Circuit of The Americas is physically demanding, but the rookie Soichiro Minamimoto was unflappable. He finished the race in 23rd position.

Despite a good start from P9 on the grid, Gonzalez was relegated to 12th place in a chaotic opening lap. He lost a further position to Bo Bendsneyder on lap 4. This wasn‘t the beginning of the 16-lap race the Spanish rider had hoped for, but he kept his head down and made a comeback, starting by overtaking Joe Roberts on lap 6. With Barry Baltus crashing out and Somkiat Chantra overtaking the number 18-rider, Manugasss remained in 12th place, but not for long. As the race went on, many riders were lured into making mistakes, but Gonzalez only became stronger. He made a late spurt, overtaking Chantra and Albert Arenas in the final six laps to take 10th place across the finish line.

Minamimoto stuck to the game plan: his sole mission was to finish his second Moto2 race. He had a good start from P29 on the grid and made up a couple of positions on the opening lap. However, the Japanese rider was unable to maintain his position and slotted back into 27th. He soon lost touch with the riders ahead of him and was left to his own devices. The rookie fully focused on his riding and finding a good rhythm around the challenging COTA track. He took the chequered flag in 23rd position.

Today‘s result earns Manugasss another 6 points. He is now on a 22 points total and keeps his seventh place in the championship standings. The Correos Prepago Yamaha VR46 Master Camp equipe is now also in seventh place in the team championship.

The team will have one week off before they start Round 4, the Gran Premio MotoGP de España, held at the Circuito de Jerez – Ángel Nieto.



GELETE NIETO
GELETE NIETO
SPORTS DIRECTOR







Manu‘s 10th position is not what we wanted, but he was feeling very uncomfortable on the bike, so I think that today's silver lining is that he‘s been able to save a difficult situation. Compared to last year, we finished the race 26 seconds faster, that means we are continuously improving a lot.

Soichiro‘s performance was not the best, he was struggling a lot. He managed to finish the race, and that‘s what we wanted, but he couldn‘t manage to adapt his riding style to today‘s track conditions, so he finished very far behind the rider he was following.

Now it‘s time to continue our work to be ready for the European rounds!




MANUEL GONZALEZ
MANUEL GONZALEZ







For me, today it‘s been a bad race. On the grid, I had a lot of confidence and will. I wanted to recover positions and give my team a good result to repay all their hard work. But as soon as the race started, I was not feeling good with the bike. I had problems in every corner, and I was not confident enough to fight with the others. I‘m very disappointed for me and for the team. Now we are going back to Europe, where we can only do better.






SOICHIRO MINAMIMOTO
SOICHIRO MINAMIMOTO







It‘s been a long race. I was not feeling comfortable on the bike, my riding style was not good. I need to adjust it. The Moto2 bike is lighter than the one I'm used to, and the wind was strong, so I couldn‘t manage these things well together. I expected more from myself.

Source: Yamaha VR46 Master Camp Moto2 Team

Click here to visit our forums to discuss this story