Indianapolis: QMMF Racing Team rider Anthony West rode to a strong 13th place at the Indianpolis Grand Prix on Sunday night and was happy to score three Moto2 world championship points after a string of difficult races.
On a track that was partially damp after a light rain shower, the 34-year-old Australian showed his skills in tricky conditions, recovering nine positions on the opening lap after a start from 23rd place on the grid.
With a set-up that was much better than on the practice days, he was able to fight close to and within the point rankings throughout the entire race, before crossing the line at the world-famous “brickyard” just 17 seconds behind race winner Alex Rins from Spain.
His team-mate Julian Simon seemed set for an even better result. With a fantastic start, he shot from 17th to third place on the opening lap and battled with the front runners for almost four laps before losing the front and crashing.
Determined to save the best-possible result, he jumped back on and started to hunt the pack once again, but three laps later, he slid off the track one more time and his battle was finally over. But even though he missed out on a possible top result, Simon was still happy with the improvements on his Speed Up bike and his own performance, that looked promising for the next races to come.
“I am happy to finally get some points. There were quite a few races where I didn’t score any, so I guess this is a success. But it’s about the only positive thing I can pull out of this weekend. The team worked hard and I want to thank them for their efforts trying to improve the bike. But it’s tough and we are still far from where we want to be. The only thing I can do is to keep pushing. Hopefully we can have an even better result next week in Brno,” West said.
His team-mate Simon said: “I had a good start and I had the advantage to be on an outside position, which allowed me to overtake many of my rivals. I went faster and faster until I found myself in third place, where I was able to run with Sam Lowes and Dominique Aegerter and to keep their pace for a while, which felt great. I then noticed strange vibrations from the front wheel, and soon after, the front closed and I crashed.”
“Since the bike wasn’t damaged, I was able to get back on and continue, but I was trying too hard to catch up and to get back into striking distance, made a mistake and fell a second time. I’m sorry for the team because they would have deserved a good result,” he added.
THE PENINSULA
