West fights hard for eleventh place, Ramos finishes his home Grand Prix in 23rd position

Despite ongoing issues with tyre grip, a problem that haunted many Moto2 riders throughout the weekend QMMF Racing Team rider Anthony West finished the Spanish Grand Prix on a high note. The 32-year-old Australian started to slide a lot after only five laps, but stayed ahead of a big pack of other riders, using all his skills and racing experience to fend off all attacks. West eventually crossed the line in eleventh position, celebrating the best possible result under the circumstances.

Team-mate Román Ramos started from 33rd place on the grid and also made the best out of a difficult weekend, battling his way to 23rd place within a hard-charging group of six riders. The 23-year-old had hoped to be able to fight for his first world championship points at his home Grand Prix, but shared the set-up problems of many other riders in Southern Spain’s summer heat.

Anthony West – 11th place

“The race was hard work, harder than any of the other races this year so far, because I was fighting so much with the bike. The first five laps I felt quite strong, I passed many of people and I had a nice battle with Nakagami. I passed him twice and I felt stronger than him. But after about five laps, the bike completely changed. Once we lose just a little bit of grip, the bike turns into something else. I almost crashed trying to stay with Nakagami, but one lap later it was he who went down, I think because of the same problem with tyre grip. He crashed, whereas I just tried to be as smooth as possible and to keep the bike in line. I had a big group behind me and I had to use old school tactics and hold them up in the corners, staying wide, brake late and block the line, so they couldn’t run their corner speed. My tactics worked and I was able to hold them off for all the race. They had a few goes at passing me, but I finished ahead of them, which felt good. We really need to fix the bike though, because if we fix this issue, I am sure we can be up in the front!”

Roman Ramos – 23rd place

“It was a tough weekend. Throughout all the practice sessions, we really struggled to find a good set-up and since we didn’t find a solution, we were suffering again in the race. I want to thank my team because they worked very hard and tried everything in their power to help me. No we go to Le Mans determined to improve and to get the motorcycle to work well so we can battle for better results. I am confident for the races to come!”

More, from a press release issued by NGM Mobile Forward Racing:

 Difficult race for the NGM Forward Racing Team

It was a difficult race for the NGM Forward Racing team on the Spanish track of Jerez de la Frontera. Simone Corsi and Mattia Pasini suffered the whole weekend due to physical problems and the hot temperatures and the excessive consume of the tyres made the race even more complicated.

Corsi made a good start from the 4th row and he caught up several positions. He was 6th when, with 8 laps to go, he crashed. Simone re-joined the race but in the attempt of recovering as many positions as possible, he crashed a second time and had to retire. With this result, he loses one position in the championship and he is currently 5th with 33 points.

It was a hard day also for team mate Mattia Pasini, who finished 18th. Mattia made a good start and he was recovering positions. He was 13th when he started to struggle a lot with the tyres and he was obliged to slow down his pace in order to finish the race. The Italian leaves Spain without points.

Simone Corsi:

“I did a good start but since the beginning I suffered a lot for lack of rear grip. With 8 laps to go I made the first mistake, I went wide and I crashed. I re-joined the race to get some points and I started to push but with 2 laps to go I crashed again and I had to retire. It was a hard race.”

Mattia Pasini:

“It was a hard weekend. I crashed in the FP1 and this spoiled the work on the bike in preparation of the race. I made quiet a good start but I in the first laps I remained trapped in the group, losing some positions. I had a good feeling and I was getting closer to the top 10 when, with 5 laps to go, the tyres dropped a lot and I couldn’t push anymore. The bike was sliding a lot and I had to slow down my pace. I preferred not to take additional risked and finish the race. It’s a pity as after the Argentina GP I expected to get a better result here. I look forward to the France GP. I have always been competitive in Le Mans and I want to get a good result there.”

More, from a press release issued by KTM:

FENATI WINS IN JEREZ; 50TH VICTORY IN ROAD RACING FOR KTM

Italian KTM rider Romano Fenati fought a hard battle with five other top riders on the Jerez circuit on Sunday to take victory in Round Four of the Moto3 World Championship ahead of Spanish duo Alex Rins and Efren Vazquez. Fenati’s victory was KTM’s fiftieth in road racing, marking another milestone for the Austrian sports motorcycle manufacturer.

Fenati rode a strong race and was up in the top three in the opening laps from a tenth place on the grid. It is his second consecutive Moto3 victory. “It was a difficult start coming from tenth on the grid but I tried to push every lap, “Fenati said. “I thought it was going to be Rins in front going into the last corner. The bike was fantastic today.”

Red Bull KTM Ajo’s Jack Miller of Australia finished fourth and retains the red plate as championship leader.

The race was a battle of attrition from the very early stages with the front group of riders giving no ground and constantly swapping the lead. Miller, on his third consecutive pole position was with the lead group the whole way but tried to conserve tires on a very hot track surface. In the end he was unable to get through the traffic in front to challenge the top three. It was the first time this season that the Australian has been off the podium. KTM riders took four of the top six places.

Jack Miller said he had a good pace on the last lap. “I had saved my tires enough to fight and I felt confident that I could overtake the top three riders. But Viñales got past me, went wide again and pushed me so far off-line that I couldn’t make up the ground. I think I could have finished on the podium, because I had been very good at braking on the last corner and had great agility on the bike. I was also by far the fastest on most corners and was overtaking well, except in the straight and the tricky turn 11.”

Red Bull KTM Ajo’s rookie Karel Hanika had a tough weekend with some technical issues in practice and qualifying. He started on the back of the grid and worked his way up to a creditable nineteenth at the flag.

Karel Hanika: “We did not start well this weekend, but we worked very hard when up against it to find a good setup for the race. The mechanics did a great job, because the bike was perfect for racing today. I made a good start, moving up a few positions, and in the first half of the race I was one of the fastest on track.” Hanika said that pushing hard in the first half of the race wrecked his tires and all he could do was to stay on track and finish the race. “There has been good progress this weekend. We didn’t do badly, but things could have been better, ” the Czech teenager said.

The Red Bull KTM Ajo factory riders and Fenati compete on the 2014 edition of the RC250GP bike.

The next round of the competition is the GP of France at Le Mans on May 18.

Moto GP of Spain – Jerez Circuit – Round 4

Moto3 Results

1, Romano Fenati, ITA, KTM, 41:28.584

2, Efren Vazquez, ESP, Honda, 41:28.728

3, Alex Rins, ESP, Honda, 41:28.731

4, Jack Miller, AUS, KTM, 41:29.808

5, Isaac Viñales, ESP, KTM, 41:29.828

6, Jakub Kornfeil, CZE, KTM, 41:30.441

7, Alex Marquez, ESP, Honda, 41:32.392

8, Francesco Bagnaia, ITA, KTM, 41:35.215

9, Enea Bastianini, ITA, KTM, 41:40.528

10, Niklas Ajo, FIN, Husqvarna, 41:40.788

Other KTM

19, Karel Hanika, CZE, KTM, 41:52.325

21, Marcos Ramirez, ESP, KTM, 42:00.021

24, Hafiq Azmi, MAL, KTM, 42:16.397

DNF, Niccolo Antonelli, ITA, KTM, 21 Laps

DNF, Gabriel Rodrigo, ARG, KTM, 16 Laps

DNF, Eric Granado, BRA, KTM, 0 Laps.

Moto3 Standings after Round 4

1, Miller, 79

2, Fenati, 74

3, Vazquez, 62

4, Rins, 51

5, Marquez, 49

6, Kornfeil, 31

7, Viñales, 28

8, Masbou, 28

9, Bagnaia, 23

10, Kent, 23

Other KTM

14, Bastianini, 16

17, Hanika, 8

18, Antonelli, 7

Moto3 Manufacturers Standings after Round 4

1, KTM, 100

2, Honda, 76

3, Husqvarna, 25

More, from a press release issued by San Carlo Team Italia:

Gran Premio bwin de España 2014

Circuito de Jerez (Spain)

May 2-4, 2014

Moto3 – Tough race for San Carlo Team Italia

Matteo Ferrari had a problem and finished 25th

Matteo Ferrari has concluded his first race of the season at Jerez de la Frontera with a 25th-place finish that does not reward the efforts made by the whole team during the weekend. As soon as “Bigin” got away from the lights, he managed to work his way through the pack until he was forced to slow down by a clutch problem that prevented a potential top-20 finish. In spite of this problem, the 2012 Moto3 European Champion proved to be a tough rider, posting some solid lap times and swapping positions several times with his opponents.

This weekend the San Carlo Team Italia has lined up only Ferrari, his teammate Andrea Locatelli being unfit to race after suffering a fracture on the head of the radius of his right hand at the Autodromo Termas de Rio Hondo one week ago. Loka strongly wanted to be at Jerez supporting his team, and carried forward his rehabilitative therapy with the support of the Clinica Mobile staff, aiming to be back in action as soon as possible on his Mahindra MGP3O.

Just like Argentina one week ago, the today’s Moto3 race at Jerez was won by Romano Fenati who clinched his second win of the season on the same track where he had conquered his first success in career, back in 2012 while he was racing for the Team Italia. To ‘Fenny’ and the to Sky Racing Team VR46 the congratulations of the FMI President Paolo Sesti.