The Grand Prix Team Switzerland achieved in Saturday’s TT Assen with a strong eleventh place a points scoring finish for the third consecutive time. The team’s Kalex rider Randy Krummenacher succeeded during qualifying practice at the previous day with an outstanding performance to fourth on the grid, but due to a difficult race the ambitious from Zurich missed a further top ten result by some tenth of a second.
Also at race day at the 82th edition of the TT Assen, which is held traditionally at the last weekend of June, weather conditions with bright sky and hot temperatures were such as fine as at the previous days of practice. Accordingly, a massive crowd flocked the ultra-fast and flowing TT circuit and not only due to that fact the Grand Prix Team Switzerland were highly motivated for the 24 lap race. First of all the team’s brilliant fourth position on the grid was the reason, from which Randy Krummenacher managed to start well before he was touched by two competitors in the tight and twisty first part of the track in northern part of the Netherlands. With on-going race distance he got a good rhythm and improved his lap times steadily until the Kalex rider battled during the later stages within a group of four riders for eight position. However, Krummenacher didn’t find place to pass his fellow campaigners in a fairly way. Finally he crossed the line after 24 demanding laps in eleventh position and scored five valuable points for the championship standings. No matter even the good starting position could not translate into a better result, the Swiss Moto2 squad reviewed the Assen weekend positively and also look forward to the upcoming grand prix at the Sachsenring which is more or less the team’s home race.
#4 Randy Krummenacher – 11th (World Championship position 16 – 20 points):
“Saturday's race result doesn't correspond to the expectations, because I would like to head home with a top ten result. But in overall we are satisfied with the weekend, even the race was a more difficult one. I did a good start until I was bumped twice during T1. For the first time it was Toni Elias who rode a hard move inside and afterwards through the hairpin it was De Angelis with who I had a slightly collision and I lost contact to the second group. But that’s racing and even more in Moto2 things like this happen. Anyway, after the opening laps I rode a lonesome race and got into a good and constant rhythm where I closed the gap slightly until I had to slow down a bit. Of course it is annoying that we have lost once again a top result in that way. In addition to that, to compare Redding's lap times with our ones, you can see that the chasing group of the leaders wasn't faster than we. So a better result was on the table again. During the final lap I lost the battle for eight because there was no room for a fair move. However, I took a lot of positive things from this eleventh position, not only because the well-deserved five point, but also due to that fact that the different mode for practice sessions has been proven. On the other hand I'm less happy about 16th position in the championship standings, but the gap to the top ten isn't as huge. I definitely will be ranked within the top ten. But after this weekend we are able to say that we are working conceptually in the right direction. We qualified for fourth and we have shown a decent performance during the race, so we will continue this way next time at the Sachsenring. For round eight I only have one purpose, namely fullgaaazz!”
Jarno Janssen – Team manager:
“In generally, it wasn’t a bad weekend for us. Fourth position during qualifying practice was a brilliant performance. But for the race we were clearly aware about that fact that it will be even more difficult. However, Randy did a steady race and he improved his lap time lap by lap. Unfortunately, during the opening lap he had to overcome two scary situations which was the reason for losing contact to the group in front of him. On a tight grid as it is case in Moto2, it is truly hard to reduce the gap to the guy ahead. Nevertheless, he and his fellow campaigners managed to catch up Mika Kallio who was racing in eight position. This four rider group opened the final lap but unluckily Randy couldn’t prevail. Although, racing survives from situations like this, namely that only one rider will be the lucky winner fighting for positions. This time we were in last position of the group and we crossed the line in eleventh position. Hopefully, next time we will be luckier to finish the race in front of our fellow campaigners. Overall we did a promising step in direction to gain better results for which the whole team is working relentless hard. Now we look forward to the Sachsenring race, where we performed last year outstandingly. “
GP Team Switzerland Press Release
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