Unbeatable Jaume Masia makes it back-to-back victories with dominant #JapaneseGP win, DNF for Suzuki

The Japanese Grand Prix concludes for Le0pard Racing with another outstanding performance from Jaume Masià, who took a brilliant third victory of the season today to put himself on top of the Riders’ Championship!

Sunday kicked off at Motegi with overcast skies and a wet track due to overnight rain, but as the clock ticked down and the race approached, it dried out.

Le0pard Racing started today’s race from the first spot on the grid with Jaume Masià, who strongly took pole position yesterday, and from the 16th place on the sixth row with Tatsuki Suzuki. In a difficult start to the race, both Le0pard riders Jaume Masià and Tatsuki Suzuki dropped down a few places. Jaume Masià sat in 5th place at first, but soon started to push hard, overtaking the riders in front to start battling within the podium places. Setting some fast laps and putting in his own rhythm, he realised he would be able to take the lead and open up a gap, and so he did.

When it was 11 laps to go, Jaume Masià hit the front, moving up from 4th to 1st in less than one lap, leading the race from that moment onwards until the end. The Spaniard, who already showed a great pace during the whole weekend at Motegi, kept pushing to get away from the leading group, opening a gap of up to 1’5s over them.

After another strong performance, Jaume Masià crossed the finish line in first place to take his third victory of the season, the second in just seven days, putting the finishing touch to a perfect weekend.

On the other hand, things were difficult today on the other side of the box, with Tatsuki Suzuki crashing at turn 1 when it was 4 laps to go, being unable to finish today’s race at his home Grand Prix. Fortunately, he is fine.

Le0pard Racing now heads into a week of rest in order to get even more ready for the triple-header that lies ahead, proud and happy with the work done, and always looking forward to more!

See you in two weeks time in Indonesia!

Jaume Masià – 1st

Mentally, it was one of the most difficult races of my career. The grip wasn’t good at all, so at first I preferred to stay calm. Once I saw the rhythm of the riders in front, I decided to push to take the lead and prepare to do a time-attack to open up a gap. It’s incredible to be able to perform a race like this, it’s not common to win in this category by breaking away from the group. I feel strong, able to face whatever comes. This team is like my second family, we are truly friends, and that’s our biggest advantage. I’m really looking forward to sharing more moments with them!

Tatsuki Suzuki – DNF

This weekend wasn’t what we expected. We’ve been struggling a lot in the last few races since I came back from injury, and today was no different. I don’t really know why this is happening, but what I do know is that we will never give up.