Top ten finish for Axel Pons at Jerez
Under scorching conditions, the team’s Axel Pons ran through niggling issues during Sunday’s Moto2™ battle at southern Spain’s Circuito de Jerez to come home in tenth.
Race day for the series round four was accompanied by great weather with temperatures reached up to 28 degrees at lunch time. Pons, who qualified P10 on the grid, lost several positions at the start due to some grip problems but was able to fight back soon after.
The Barcelona born rider made it through the top ten positions until he lost ninth place in the very last corner. Sunday’s P10 in Spain was the team’s second top ten finished since RW Racing enters the intermediate class at the end of last season.
The World Championship move over to Le Mans now for the French Grand Prix in two weeks.
#49 Axel PONS, 10th (Championship position 16th, 12 points):
“Well, this tenth is not so bad. But, we still struggle a lot with a very low grip situation since the last races. In the morning, in cooler temperatures, we are feeling really good, but as soon the conditions are getting warmer or hot like this weekend, it’s really difficult to ride the bike and let it roll with a decent speed through the corners. During today’s race, we had more or less the same grip level, with a little bit less towards the end, as the lap times dropped down which was clearly to see. Overall, however, it was a hard race because I touched another rider at the beginning and then I was leading my group all the way which was physically and mentally very demanding because firstly, of the heat and the low grip situation, etc., so it was easy to make mistakes. But we managed to remain cool and to bring this top ten home. It’s quite ok but obviously, we have to look at ourselves and try to improve all this things that we didn’t perfect so far.”