FIM Moto2 World Championship Circuit of The Americas Austin, Texas April 21, 2013 Race Results (all using Honda engines and Dunlop tires): 1. Nicolas TEROL, Spain (SUTER), 19 laps, 42:02.689 2. Esteve RABAT, Spain (KALEX), -3.125 seconds 3. Mika KALLIO, Finland (KALEX), -3.175 4. Dominique AEGERTER, Switzerland (SUTER), -4.873 5. Scott REDDING, UK (KALEX), -5.597 6. Johann ZARCO, France (SUTER), -9.295 7. Anthony WEST, Australia (SPEED UP), -9.440 8. Mattia PASINI, Italy (SPEED UP), -14.472 9. Alex DE ANGELIS, San Marino (SPEED UP), -16.051 10. Toni ELIAS, Spain (KALEX), -19.696 11. Mike DI MEGLIO, France (MOTOBI), -20.107 12. Marcel SCHROTTER, Germany (KALEX), -23.287 13. Xavier SIMEON, Belgium (KALEX), -23.547 14. Jordi TORRES, Spain (SUTER), -23.815 15. Ricard CARDUS, Spain (SPEED UP), -33.488 16. Simone CORSI, Italy (SPEED UP), -35.424, crash 17. Axel PONS, Spain (KALEX), -35.532 18. Danny KENT, UK (TECH 3), -42.451 19. Yuki TAKAHASHI, Japan (MORIWAKI), -44.314 20. Julian SIMON, Spain (KALEX), -44.688 21. Kyle SMITH, UK (KALEX), -58.964 22. Ratthapark WILAIROT, Thailand (SUTER), -59.940 23. Steven ODENDAAL, South Africa (SPEED UP), -60.107 24. Louis ROSSI, France (TECH 3), -60.702 25. Doni Tata PRADITA, Indonesia (SUTER), -68.996 26. Sandro CORTESE, UK (KALEX), -84.281, jump start/ride-through penalty 27. Randy KRUMMENACHE, Switzerland (SUTER), -10 laps, DNF, crash 28. Rafid Topan SUCIPTO, Indonesia (SPEED UP), -12 laps, DNF, retired 29. Takaaki NAKAGAMI, Japan (KALEX), -13 laps, DNF, retired 30. Alberto MONCAYO, Spain (SPEED UP), -13 laps, DNF, retired 31. Pol ESPARGARO, Spain (KALEX), -16 laps, DNF, crash World Championship Point Standings (after 2 of 17 races): 1. Redding, 31 points 2. TIE, Terol/Rabat/Kallio, 27 5. Aegerter, 26 6. Espargaro, 25 7. Nakagami, 16 8. De Angelis, 15 9. Zarco, 14 10. Simon, 10 More, from a press release issued by Blusens Avintia Racing: Toni Elías moves up after a run off and reaches the top ten in the last lap Kyle Smith, blocked in the first corner, repeats the position achieved in Qatar Austin, 21 April 2013. The Blusens Avintia rider did a good comeback today at the Circuit of The Americas in Austin. Despite a race start in which he gained a position on the first lap, he lost places due to a run off on the third lap and from the twentieth position he had to move up reaching in the end the riders that were fighting for the top ten. On the last turns Toni caught Di Meglio, who was tenth, andin the last lap Elías fought and achieved the tenth position, braking as he knows and overtaking the French rider some meters before the finish line. Meanwhile, the debutant Smith started from the nineteenth place and hoped to begin well and improve the result of the previous race, in which he finished twenty-first. But despite having started well, Kyle lost positions on the first turn of the circuit, without options to ride with the group which would have allowed him to achieve his first points. 24 Toni Elías (10th, +19.696): We should be satisfied with the result and the work done. We are not happy, but we can consider it a good result after all the weekend. We had several problems with the front wheel and it was very uncomfortable for me. We have worked well, we managed to have good traction and at many points we could ride quickly, but we have to improve. I started well but on the Turn 1 I made contact with a rider and then I had to fight in a very difficult group. In the end I have moved up well and we have reached the tenth position points. We have improved in relation to Qatar and I am sure in Jerez we will advance more. 9 Kyle Smith (21st, +58.964): I have finished my second race in the World Championship and this is positive, but I have to admit that I hoped to improve the Qatar result. I do not know why but today it was difficult to make yesterday lap times and have the pace we had in the practice days. We have made some modifications and apparently the bike worked well, but the times were not as good as other days. On the other hand, the first corner and the first lap have been chaotic. I have made contact with other riders, I have run off the track and then it has been very difficult to move up. But I am happy, I have learned more and now we go to Jerez and there I have to get the top twenty! More, from a press release issued by NGM Mobile Forward Racing: NGM Mobile Forward Racing Team – Down to the last lap The Austin Grand Prix at the Circuit Of The Americas comes to an end for the NGM Mobile Forward Racing riders and their SpeedUp bikes. Great comeback from Mattia Pasini and Alex De Angelis, who started the race from the back of the grid on twenty-fourth and twenty-fifth position and ended the race in the Top10, with three of the NGM Mobile Forward Racing Team bikes fighting on the last few laps. A satisfied Ricky Cardús that after crashing during the last Qatar GP, manages to finish the race and takes his first point of the season. On the other hand we have Simone Corsi, who started the race from the second row of the starting grid and was fighting in the front group for the top positions but crashed due to defective tires. The overall analysis for the first US race for the NGM Mobile Forward Racing riders is positive, they take the first points of the season, very important in terms of the championship. Mattia Pasini – 8th “I am very happy about how the race turned out. I needed this good result for team morale and also for the people that have always believed in me. At Qatar we had several problems, we decided to start the weekend with a different working methodology on the SpeedUp by following the technical indications provided by the manufacturer. Step by step we have improved. We go to Jerez knowing that the track is particularly difficult for us but look forward after this considerable improvement, to improve also at Jerez. I would like to thank Giovanni (Cuzari, Team Owner), my team and bike manufacturer, who provides us with highly competitive racing material.” Alex De Angelis – 9th “I am obviously satisfied with the race result. We were able to have a good pace and my team, as always, has believed in me until the very last lap. We found a good solution during the warm up session this morning that translated into a pre race modification that worked just great. I would like to thank all my team, I am convinced that we are competitive but we still have to work in order to get to the level of the fastest riders specially during qualifying. The race pace is good, as it was already the case in Qatar but we still have room for improvement. On the straight the bike is fast, the aerodynamic is perfect and the tires hold up great but we have to improve the fast lap time. I believe this will be a great season.” Ricky Cardús – 15 th “After what happened in Qatar it was important for me to finish the race. I had a good start and was fast during the first laps. On lap ten I started having problems with the tires, I tried to stay close to Mattia and Alex but I could ride the bike as I would have wanted and lost them. I have taken my first point of the season while not being physically at my best and I am satisfied because I have gotten in the points zone helped by a very competitive bike. I am very hopeful for the rest of the season.” Simone Corsi – 16 th “We have used up a race in which we could have had a good result. I started the race form the second row. I preserved the tires as much as I could because I knew it was important but had big chatter problems on the front of the bike, making it hard for me to ride as I would have liked to and ended up sliding and crashing.” More, from a press release issued by Marc VDS Racing Team: Austin, Texas – 21 April 2013: The Marc VDS Racing Team had double reason to celebrate at the end of the inaugural Grand Prix of the Americas today, with Mika Kallio storming to a brilliant third place and Scott Redding seizing the Moto2 World Championship points lead with a hard earned fifth. A lightning start from ninth on the grid and a super aggressive first two laps immediately thrust Kallio into podium contention where he remained to the chequered flag after a pulsating fight with Dominique Aegerter and Esteve Rabat. Using all his experience to try and protect second position at the Circuit of the Americas (COTA), he was fortunate not to crash on the final lap when Aegerter clipped the back of his Kalex machine. Kallio expertly kept control of his bike and he missed out on securing second place by just 0.050s. His third Moto2 podium though moved him into a three-way tie for second position in the overall World Championship rankings. Starting from pole position for the first time in his 86-race World Championship career, Redding went straight into full attack mode to try and put clear air between him and the pursuing pack. But rapidly deteriorating front and rear grip, which Redding had expressed concerns about in advance of the 19-lap clash, meant he was unable to sustain his blistering early pace. Rather than take unnecessary risks to force his way back into the podium hunt, Redding rode the remainder of the race with precious World Championship points in mind after Pol Espargaro’s unfortunate early crash. The 11-points secured for a battling fifth position gives Redding a four-point cushion at the top of the World Championship standings heading to the start of the European phase of the 2013 World Championship in Jerez next month. Mika Kallio #36: 3rd “I am really happy to be on the podium because it backs up a solid top five in the first race and now I am in a very good position in the championship. It was a very difficult race because I knew Aegerter and Rabat would be coming to attack on the last lap and I knew we’d have a moment. I got clipped from behind but fortunately I stayed on the bike to get a podium. I’m a little disappointed because a small mistake at the last corner cost me second, but I’m still very satisfied. I didn’t have the best top speed or the best front grip, but I could see that I could fight for the podium from the beginning. It has been a great weekend for the Marc VDS Racing Team and this result gives us a lot of confidence heading to Jerez.” Scott Redding #45: 5th “I’m obviously disappointed not to be on the podium after starting from pole position but I salvaged fifth position out of a difficult race and now I am leading the championship and that’s a great feeling. Before the race I knew we’d struggle with the tyres going off and that’s exactly what happened. I went out there to win but after six laps I knew it was impossible. I guessed that Espargaro and Nakagami were out so I just used my brain and didn’t push too hard to risk a crash that would have been very costly. It was a decent fifth and now I am leading the championship I need to hold it together for the rest of the year after a great start to the season.” Michael Bartholemy: Team Principal “We certainly won’t be forgetting our first trip to COTA in a hurry. Scott scored an amazing debut pole position and today he leaves leading the World Championship after a very mature ride. And Mika got a podium, which was a great way to end the weekend. Mika got a great start and was very aggressive in the first two laps to give himself a great chance of the podium. He then rode really fast while trying to conserve his tyres to stay in the podium places right to the end. He’s now finished in the top five in both races and that is great for his confidence. After Scott’s pole position we’d hoped he’d at least be on the podium. His strategy was to make a break and manage the gap at the front, but we knew he’d have some issues with tyre wear. He still did a brilliant job and he used his head to score some really important points. I’m really happy for the Marc VDS Racing Team and in particular Marc, who has given incredible support to this project. We are leading the World Championship for the first time and hopefully we can remain there.” More, from a press release issued by Mapfre Aspar Team: NICO TEROL TAKES FIRST MOTO2 WIN IN DOMINANT FASHION MAPFRE Aspar Team rider claims first victory and circuit record at GP of the Americas -giving his team their maiden Moto2 win The first Moto2 race at the Circuit of the Americas exceeded all expectations, and was the only contest in the three categories that make up the World Championship to stray from the script. Scott Redding pulled away from pole position on the grid, but was unable to break free of his rivals. Pol Espargaró suffered an ugly crash on lap 3, Redding faded inexplicably, and Nico Terol pushed through on lap 4 to take the lead. In the space of two laps he had established a clear advantage, with a 3-second cushion between him and his rivals. He won comfortably, with Tito Rabat and Mika Kallio joining him on the podium. MAPFRE Aspar rider Nico Terol took yet another victory in America -a talismanic country for the Spaniard. A year and a half after his last victory (Aragon 2011, in the 125cc class) he topped the rostrum for the first time in Moto2. Terol’s win is also the MAPFRE Aspar Team’s first triumph in the Moto2 class. Indianapolis 2008 -also a debuting track at the time- was the scene of Terol’s first GP win, and it was fitting that he should repeat the feat in Moto2 at Austin. He needed just three laps in order to get up to first, and the next four saw him riding in the 2’11s to break free. He set the fastest race lap on the sixth time around, then took his bike home for a memorable victory. He is now second in the World Championship, with 27 points. Less fortunate was teammate Jordi Torres, who struggled in the race today with a defective rear tyre. Nevertheless, the Catalan fought to maintain positions and finally concluded the day 14th. 1st Nico Terol: “At the start of the race I was a little nervous, because I did not want to make any mistakes and was hoping for a good result. At the end, when I saw what I had achieved, my confidence soared. In Valencia I managed a podium on a wet track, but I had not been at the front in the dry before -let alone won a race. My first GP victory was in America, my first win in Moto2 has also come here, so I’m very happy, I wish I had more races on American soil! This circuit is very technical, but I felt really good throughout the weekend. I knew that the key would be the first few laps, so I tried to stay as focused as possible. I managed to keep calm and wait for my moment to push hard. Redding had some problems I think, so when I picked up on them I set a goal to get past him and open up a gap. I knew that I had good pace, so I limited myself to trying to keep it up. When I saw what my advantage was and how it was increasing, I enjoyed the race a little more. Throughout the weekend we did a great job, using worn tyres for the most part and looking to find a strong pace. That was one of the keys to the win today.” 14th Jordi Torres: “This morning in the warmup session we made a couple of changes that allowed us to climb through the field and up our pace. That has made us highly motivated when it came to race time, but it seems that we had a problem with the rear tyre -it would not let me lean the bike over well. I had to do wonders to turn the bike in. At first I thought it could be a temperature problem, and that it would steady up as the laps went by, but it actually got worse. Then there was shaking on the straights too. I stayed up as best I could and tried to keep my position, and in the end I finished fourteenth. I saw at the end that the tyre carcass had dented. Dunlop are investigating this in order to give a diagnosis. We had a difficult day, but the team are very happy with Nico’s win. I give my sincere congratulations to him; I’m so happy for him.” More, from a press release issued by QMMF Racing Team: West storms to seventh – Sucipto stops QMMF Racing Team rider Anthony West scored his first top result of the season, storming to seventh place at the Grand Prix of the Americas. Tenth after the opening lap, the 31-year-old Australian quickly moved up to fifth behind eventual winner Terol, Kallio, Aegerter and Redding, but couldn’t keep his position due to some problems with chattering and a lack of front end grip. He still managed to defend sixth place until the last lap, when Frenchman Johann Zarco took advantage of West’s increasing problems with tyre grip. Whereas West’s initial disappointment about Zarco’s move faded quickly and turned into pride about a successful weekend in Texas, the difficulties of 18-year-old team-mate Rafid Topan Sucipto continued in the race. This time, the GP rookie from Jakarta struggled with a gearbox change from using second through sixth to first through fifth gear, which improved his speed in some sections of the track, but also caused him to hit neutral several time. Eventually, he decided to pull in. Anthony West – 7th place “My start was good and the first laps went quite okay. I was not amazingly fast, but I felt comfortable where I was. I passed a few people, they fought back, but I passed them again and made a bit of a gap. I really felt like I could have caught the front group once I got passed those guys that were holding me up, but there was enough of a gap that I couldn’t catch them. One problem that I had was front end chatter, the other was that in return for improving the rear tyre grip, we lost some grip in the front and I was losing the front a lot. I was at the limit with how far I could push it and I was borderline to crashing. I still felt I had the speed to catch Redding in the end, because he dropped of a little bit, but my bike wasn’t allowing me to do it. I am also bit upset that Zarco passed me on the last lap. But overall, it is a good result for us, good for the championship to get points and good in terms of the information we got for the continuation of the season. We are getting closer and closer to the front group, we just need to sort a few set-up issues. But the guys are doing a really good job and I am sure we can fix these issues for the next races! Rafid Topan Sucipto – did not finish “When I would downshift through the gears under brakes in the race, I ended up in neutral several times, which caused me to run wide and got me close to crashing. I thought there might be something wrong with the bike, so I pulled in for a check. It turned out that my problem had only to do with our set-up change and with using first gear, which we hadn’t done in the practice sessions. I was considering to go out again after my pit stop, but I had lost my rhythm and my confidence entirely so we decided to stop!” More, from a press release issued by Tech 3: Tough Texas debut for Tech 3 Racing Team The Tech 3 Racing Team’s first visit to the spectacular Circuit of the Americas (COTA) proved to be a challenging affair, with Danny Kent and Louis Rossi finishing in 18th and 24th respectively. Kent was unable to capitalise on an encouraging 13th position on the grid because of a small gearbox issue, but he did brilliantly to fight his way back through from outside of the top 20 in the early laps to claim a respectable 18th place finish at the chequered flag. With 19 more competitive race laps under his belt, the British rider gained more valuable experience on the Mistral 610 machine and he is confident when the World Championship moves to Europe for the next race in Jerez that he will be able to battle for his first points scoring finish. Today’s second round of the 2013 Moto2 World Championship at the long and technical COTA track was a big learning experience for Frenchman Louis Rossi. Despite the best efforts of his Tech 3 Racing crew to improve his feeling and confidence with the Mistral 610 machine, Rossi never felt comfortable to push close to his normal potential and he finished in 24th position. Danny Kent 18th: “I am a little bit disappointed with the outcome of the race, particularly after such a positive qualifying that put me 13th on the grid. I had a problem with the gearbox going from second to first and it was creating a big problem for me entering the corner. I think that’s what put Nakagami out of the race too, so we weren’t the only one with a problem. Unfortunately it meant we finished the race with no points and that’s a shame because I am sure I could have been in the top 15 today. I am still learning so much with every lap I complete and I am looking forward to going to Jerez and fighting for my first points there.” Louis Rossi 24th: “It was a really difficult weekend for me because right from the first practice I didn’t have a lot of confidence on the bike. I just couldn’t push with any confidence at all and we have to try and understand why it turned out to be such a difficult weekend. I want to thank my Tech 3 Racing Team because the bike was the best it has been all weekend in the race and I had slightly more confidence than on Friday and Saturday. Until about six laps from the end I could push harder but then the end of the race I had to slow down a lot. We have collected a lot of useful data during this weekend in Texas and we need to analyse it all in detail to make sure we have a better performance in the next races because where I finished today was nothing like I know what my full potential is. We tested in Jerez in the winter and I am looking forward to going there and being much more competitive.” Herve Poncharal – Team Manager: “We were confident we could score our first points with Danny here in Texas today because qualifying went well and he had a good feeling with the bike. But after a bad start and a few first laps where he struggled to find the right rhythm because of the gearbox problem it put him too far behind to reach the points. That’s a pity and disappointing but he still showed great fighting spirit with a good recovery during the second part of the race. It was a bit like in Qatar where he was very fast in the second part of the race and easily good enough to see him battling around 10th to 15th. But by that time the gap was already too big. He is gaining experience and that is the most important thing and i am sure it won’t be long before he is a consistent challenger in the points. Louis had a very tough weekend but at least he managed to finish the race and gain some experience. Both of them are learning a lot and are now ready for the first European race in Jerez where both have good track knowledge and where Danny in particular made a good job during the test one month ago.”