Doha: Despite a dangerous mechanical problem, QMMF Racing Team rider Anthony West rode to 12th position at the Grand Prix of Argentina and saved the day with the third top result in the third race of the season.
The 32-year-old Australian bolted from 20th place on the starting grid to eleventh position in the first lap and started to challenge his rivals for a Top Ten finish, when his engine suddenly lost power and oil.
West dropped back a few positions, but re-established contact to the group he had been fighting with despite a slippery right footpeg and despite a lack of traction due to oil dripping onto his rear tyre.
He clawed his way back to 12th place on the penultimate lap and crossed the line just half a second behind German Marcel Schrötter in eleventh place and 21.5 seconds behind race winner Esteve Rabat.
Team-mate Román Ramos entertained the crowd of more than 70,000 spectators at the first Argentinian Grand Prix in 15 years with a brave battle, moving up from 29th on the starting grid to 22nd position in the end with ever-improving lap times. On his way, the 23-year-old left local hero Sebastian Porto and another eight riders in his wake.
“We had a problem with the engine that started after the seventh lap. After fighting with Kallio, I had opened up a gap to the group behind me and I already could see the group in front of me. I was catching up to Folger who rode in sixth position, when the engine started to slow down. Then, for no reason, my foot started slipping from the footpeg. I looked down and realized there was a lot of oil coming out of the engine,” West said.
The oil dripping affected the Australian rider performance.
“In the right-hand corners, I almost ran over my own foot a few times, because I slipped off so often and so suddenly. That lost me a lot of time in the middle of the race. But by the time I realized that I could somehow ride around the problem, it was too late to catch the whole group in front of me and I had to settle for 12th,” he added.
West team-mate Ramos was happy with his performance.
“It was a good race-weekend for us. The set-up of my bike is better than it has ever been since I started this year and I think we established a really good line of working. Obviously, there is a lot of work yet to be done because we are still way behind, but my lap times in the race were the best of the whole weekend, which is encouraging,” Ramos said.
“In fact, towards the end of the race, I was faster than ever before and I am very happy with that. I want to thank my guys in the team for they great work they have done. I am confident that we can be faster again in Jerez and fight for a position closer to the front. It’s a circuit that we know really well, we are at our home Grand Prix and this will help us to achieve the best possible result,” he added.
The Peninsula
