A huge partisan home crowd roared French favourite Louis Rossi to his first point scoring finish in the ultra-competitive Moto2 World Championship at the historic Le Mans track this afternoon.
In tricky conditions with rain threatening to fall from the start of the 26-lap race, Tech 3 Racing Team rider Rossi showed poise and pace to battle from outside of the top 20 to 15th in an incident-packed encounter.
Several riders succumbed to the difficult conditions but Rossi engaged in an exciting battle throughout with teammate Danny Kent.
Their close battle looked certain to go all the way to the chequered flag but with the forecast rain arriving just three laps from the end of the race, Race Direction had no choice but to halt proceedings.
The red flag meant the honour of scoring the first top 15 finish in 2013 for the French designed and built Tech 3 Racing Mistral 610 machine went to Rossi by a fraction of a second from British rider Kent, who can take great encouragement from his highest finish in his Moto2 career to date.
With Rossi and Kent racing to their best results of the 2013 campaign today, the Tech 3 Racing Team now heads to the next round in Mugello with renewed optimism and confidence that both can consistently compete for the top 15 on the improving Mistral 610 machine.
Louis Rossi 15th – 1 point:
“I'm very happy for the whole team because we finished inside the top 15 for first time in Moto2 and it was really important for me to do it in front of my friends and family in my home race. That definitely makes this positive result have an even better taste because since the beginning of the season we have been struggling quite a bit. But the Tech 3 Racing Team has never stopped working hard and showing me incredible support, and with the improvements we are making and the experience I am gaining I’m sure we can be consistently battling for the top 15 in the future.”
Danny Kent 16th:
“That was the best race I’ve had so far this year. I’m a little bit disappointed because I had just passed Louis and was confident I could take my first top 15 in Moto2 when the red flags came out. That dropped me back to 16th but it was still an encouraging race. The main issue is that we struggle a bit on speed compared to the other riders. This is a track where you can pass at the end of the straight but the speed issue made it a tricky situation and even compared to Louis I didn’t seem to be able to match his speed. But after a few moments in the early laps I’m really happy about my pace. I still lose too much time during the first laps and that means being too far from the points. But we learned a lot again during this weekend and I am convinced we’ll be more competitive in Mugello."
Herve Poncharal – Team Manager:
“I think today showed that both Louis and Danny are making positive steps in understanding how to get the best out of the Mistral 610 machine. It was a very difficult race in tricky conditions and with the amount of crashes it was clear it was very easy to make a mistake. But both Louis and Danny showed impressive composure and concentration throughout and it was a good battle between them for the entire race. They showed a lot of determination and both of them wanted to score that first top 15 finish of the season. In the second half of the race their lap times were very promising and this time it was Louis who came out on top. I am happy for him because it will be a good confidence boost to get this result in his own backyard here in Le Mans. It will also motivate Danny to try and be stronger in Mugello and hopefully we will see both of them pushing to finish in the points again.”
Tech 3 Racing Press Release