The race pace in Moto2 continued to be fierce in Japan, although maybe not quite reaching the pole time from yesterday (1’50.886). There is normally no margin for error in the category, but today a mistake was made –and recovered from- by Marc Márquez. The Spaniard was stuck in neutral at the start, but made his way back through to win the race. Márquez and Pol Espargaró caught up with Esteve Rabat and there was a three-way fight on the final laps. Márquez won from Espargaró, with Rabat third.
MAPFRE Aspar rider Jordi Torres took three points and further GP experience from the Japanese round. Starting from sixteenth, on the second lap he almost went to ground thanks to another rider, but held on to prevent a crash and complete the 23-lap contest. His comeback was the fruit of an increased pace, and with a little more push in the final stages he could have placed in the top ten –as at Aragón. In any case, the Spaniard was satisfied with his work and is now ready to travel to Malaysia.
Also caught by surprise in the early going was teammate Nico Terol, who dropped from seventh position on the grid to sixteenth. Terol made a comeback but, on lap fourteen, took a trip into the gravel which almost eliminated him from the race. He got back on track to place nineteenth.
13th Jordi Torres:
“Today I began the race very motivated. This is a heavy braking circuit and I knew that I had the chance to fight for a good position today. Yesterday I did not qualify as I would have liked, but I was calm about the race. On the first few corners a rider went right through me and I had to hang on tight to keep from falling. I lost many positions from that, but then I started to pick up pace and I began to pass riders. Increasing the pace, I felt more comfortable. Again the bike worked perfectly, but the problem on lap one hindered us a lot. When I reached the group that was ahead of me I lacked a little decisiveness to pass. I stuck with various riders and saw things that could prove useful in the next few races. I picked up a bit more experience today.”
19th Nico Terol:
“I want to stress that this weekend, once again, we did a great job with the setup. of I was very motivated for the race, but I didn’t get a good start. On the second corner I got stuck on the outside and many riders passed me. I acknowledge that on the first few laps I find it hard to find pace and be more aggressive. We have to address this, because later when I checked what others were running, I could have been in the top seven and gone for higher positions. It’s too bad that our races are so affected by the opening two or three laps. I'm mad with myself and I hope this serves as motivation. Now I have to go over this race, to analyse all the mistakes and try not to repeat them in Malaysia."
Mapfre Aspar Moto2 Press Release
You can give your opinion on our Facebook page here
Get the latest update on our Twitter page here
