DNF for Xavi Vierge in chaotic Valencia race

Xavi Vierge started his home race from second position and was determined to secure a podium finish in his last race for the Dynavolt Intact GP team. The Spaniard was actually on his way to doing so. First, he was briefly in the lead in lap one and later fought for second and third place. But after eleven laps, the hunt for the podium was over when the 21-year-old slipped over the front wheel, landing in the gravel with his Kalex-bike. Although he was able to get back up and continue, he had to retire after one more lap.

Although Xavi Vierge slid down to eleventh place in the Championship after crashing in Valencia and thus repeated his 2017 result, his collected 131 points are significantly more than what he had a year ago. He got on the Podium twice (2nd place in Argentina, 3rd place in Australia), took a spot in the front row four times and secured the first pole position of his Grand Prix career.

Xavi Vierge – DNF
“Overall, I am satisfied with the weekend. Yesterday we were very fast under dry and wet weather conditions. Of course I’m sad about how the Sunday ended. Already in the warm-up this morning I had no feeling for my tyres and had absolutely no grip. For the race I put on the used front tyre from yesterday. With the front I didn’t have any problems anymore, but the rear got worse and worse. Finally I just tried to stay on the bike and finish the race as good as possible. Finally I crashed. Having to finish the race as a spectator is very devastating. Especially because the conditions in FP3 yesterday were very similar and I was really fast. But today I had big problems and it got worse from lap to lap. I can only apologise to my team. I really gave everything to reach our goal, but unfortunately I had to finish the race earlier than expected. I gave everything every race weekend and would like to thank the sponsors and my team for everything this season.”