Luis Salom has won his second race of this season. The RW Racing GP rider was the smartest of the leading group contending for victory in the GP of Aragon. The Spaniard saved his energy and attacked in the final stage of the race. He beat Sandro Cortese and Jonas Folger on the finish line.
His victory brought Salom to the second place in the championship, after Maverick Viñales suffered an engine failure in the sighting lap before the start of the race. With his main rival out of the race it was a matter of keeping calm, stay in the leading group and get as much points as possible.
It was a bit of a messy race with a big leading group and a new leader twice a lap. With only three laps to go there were still six or seven riders together of which each one was able to win the race. In the penultimate lap Salom decided it was time to tear the group apart and break away. He put the hammer down and managed to open up a small gap, but lost his advantage when he ran wide. Championship leader Cortese passed Salom and tried the same: to get away. Salom obviously was not satisfied with second and could overtake Cortese again with half a lap to go. He did not give away this advantage anymore.
Team owner Roelof Waninge was on the podium to collect the team trophy.
Salom is now second in the championship, 51 points behind Cortese. There are still four races to go and 100 points to gain.
Saloms team mate at RW Racing GP, Brad Binder, did an excellent job starting from the far end of the grid and finishing sixteenth. Unfortunately Binder finished just outside of the points. Binder had a disastrous qualifying with only one decent lap that left him in 32nd on the grid. After a difficult start the South African was able to battle himself up.
Luis Salom (1st): ,,It was a difficult race with many people involved in the front. Everybody was holding up one another and it was going relatively slow. That was good for me actually because I was in a lot of pain after two nasty crashes: one in FP3 and the other one in the warm-up this morning. My team did a very good job. They had a lot of work to fix the damage from the crash and my bike was ready only ten minutes before we had to go the grid. It was pretty hectic. Anyway, I could stay calm and save my strength until the end. My collarbone really hurts. I have to go to the doctor in Mallorca to examine it again.’’
Brad Binder (16th): ,,I think I had a good race. I had a pretty good start but I missed a braking point that cost me a lot of time. I had to start overtaking all over again. My pace was good, the bike felt good. Without that mistake I could have been 13th or 14th, at least grab some points. Well, let’s just hope next race will be better.’’
RW Racing Press Release
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