A top 20 finish in only his second race of 2014 was the reward of Tetsuta Nagashima’s hard work at today’s Moto2 race at The Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas.
After an incident-packed first lap where a number of riders went down, the 21-year-old Japanese rider found himself solidly in the top 20 for most of the 19 laps. For the majority of the race the Teluru team JiR Web!ke Moto2 rider was in 17th position, just two places from the points. Towards the end of the race he dropped down to 21st thanks to some front-end chatter issues, but he managed to take 20th position at the chequered flag.
The race saw Maverick Vinales take his debut win, from championship leader Esteve Rabat. The Moto2 Championship now heads to Argentina for the race there in two weeks time.
Gianluca Montiron, Teluru team JiR Web!ke’s Principal.
“Tetsuta’s best lap time was almost the same as in practice, but he was not so consistent as he had some problem with the brakes. We gained some advantage as some riders crashed ahead, so we were in 17th place but even from there things could have gone wrong so it was so important that he managed to finish the race. What we also take heart from is the fact that he improved his time from the race winner by about 10 seconds so we are moving in the right direction. Now we head to Argentina where no-one knows the track so that will be interesting for our rider.”
Tetsuta Nagashima, Teluru team JiR Web!ke’s: best lap 2m 13.402s
“The race wasn’t easy for me. I didn’t have a good start but there was a big accident on the first corner and I could avoid it and pass the finish line after the next lap in quite a good position. From then my pace wasn’t too bad and I was comfortable, but after the middle of the race at a specific corner I had chattering from the front and the biggest issue I think came from the front brake, so I had to slow down my pace so overall I think I’m disappointed at what we could have achieved. Still, I have a lot to learn and I finished the race to give me much needed experience. I am happy we finished and now I will stay positive for the next race in Argentina.”
Teluru Team JiR Press Release
