Rabat just misses out on celebrating 100th GP with podium finish, Espargaro crashes early
The joy of Tito Rabat, fourth and only few tenths from the podium in his 100th Grand Prix race, was a big contrast to the disappointment of Pol Espargaró, who after dominating four of the five practice sessions in Assen and showing an excellent pace, crashed out of the race in the second lap when he was leading the front group and trying to escape on his own. Axel Pons also couldn’t finish the race after he crashed out halfway through.
Tito’s comeback has been remarkable, moving up from 11th to third place, finishing fourth and equaling his results from Qatar and Catalunya which moves him up to 7th position in the championship standings. Pol Espargaró is now third in the championship, 31 points behind the leader and eight behind second place.
4. TITO RABAT “I would have liked to celebrate my 100th Grand Prix with a podium, but I’m leaving with the good feeling of having fought for it after starting from pretty far behind. I did a race from less to more, starting from the fourth row and settling into third position. Redding had a better pace than me and when he came back to pass me I couldn’t follow him, so I focused on keeping De Angelis behind to secure fourth place. Before the start of the season my goal was to always be among the top five and fight for the podium sometimes, something I haven’t achieved in some races. Today I returned to where I should be and I hope to continue doing this from now on, starting with next Sunday at Sachsenring and then in Mugello.
POL ESPARGARÓ “I was over-eager and made a mistake in the second lap when I failed to avoid a small bump on the inside of the corner and lost the front. You have to learn from all mistakes and there’s little time for regrets, in four days we’ll already be in Germany and prepare another race.
I started well and at the end of the first lap I was in front. I wanted to do a fast pace to stretch out the group and try to escape since the pace of the practice sessions gave me confidence, but the tyres lost grip and I ended up on the ground and with zero points in the bag. There are many points at stake and we know it won’t be easy to close the gap, but fortunately we have two consecutive race weekends ahead of us which force us to look ahead and seek the best of us, remembering that we will never give up.”
AXEL PONS: “A race to forget, I’ve been riding in positions far away from the points all the time and halfway through the race I crashed when I lost the grip on the front in turn 5. During the weekend I had many problems and didn’t have a good pace, but I thought I could do better in the race. Now I have to move on and hope that next weekend at the Sachsenring everything will go better.”
Source: Pons Racing Press Release
