The Frenchman suffered a crash in the final stages of qualifying yesterday which saw him down in 18th on the grid for today’s race, but the 25-year-old former 125cc World Champion showed determination to finish just outside of the top-ten in 11th place, taking five valuable world championship points.
Di Meglio made a stunning start, being as high as eighth place in the early stages of the race, battling riders who started much further up on the grid.
In an exciting race Spaniard Nicolas Terol took his maiden win from Esteve Rabat and Mika Kallio. Pole-sitter Scott Redding finished fifth.
Gianluca Montiron – JiR Team Principal
“Today was not too bad for us as we take our first points, which is important to us and generally I think it was a positive day. On Friday Mike was with the top group and on the second day things were more difficult but in today’s warm-up he was fast and able to stay with the top group. In the race he made a good start and his rhythm was good but he soon found some issue with his pace in the second part of the race even though he was as high as 8thplace early on. This was the first time for him under full race conditions near the front and fighting with the front group so it was important for him to finish the race and we were not so far away from the top. We need to improve Mike’s riding style to the Moto2 machine so it is a good challenge for us to develop both our machine and rider to get them both in a better condition for the next race.”
Mike Di Meglio – JiR Moto2 Team Rider
Final position: 11th
“I made a very good start and we were not too bad early in the race. My feeling with the bike improved even though the track conditions were changing and therefore I had to change how to ride, pretty soon in the second part of the race I didn’t have feeling with the front of the bike towards the end of the race. Overall it was a positive weekend, but we need to move forwards for the final day of qualifying as if we were 10th we would have been so much higher up. We need to remember these are our first points but we can and want to do so much better.”
JiR Moto2 Press Release
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