Marcos Ramirez sixth in #ThaiGP with top twenty finish for Rory Skinner

The American Racing Team collected more points as Marcos Ramirez clinched sixth whilst Rory Skinner secured another top 20 in Thailand.
As the team headed into the final race of this triple-header, Marcos made a steady start to proceeding on Friday morning, but he upped the pace in FP2 as he topped the timings for the majority of the session before a late charge from Pedro Acosta dropped him into P2.

With the humidity ramping up a notch for Saturday’s final practice, Marcos was unable to improve on his best time from Friday but secured his Q2 place in P4. The Spaniard carried his impressive pace into Qualifying as he claimed P6 on the grid, his best Qualifying position in Moto2.

As the lights went out, Marcos made a lightning getaway to move up into third position before being pushed back into fourth by a hard-charging Somkiat Chantra, who scythed past him on lap six.

With Chantra putting some distance between them both, Marcos made Tony Arbolino’s life difficult as he held him off for as long as possible before the Italian eventually made his way past.

With only one lap remaining, Ai Ogura made a final late push to knock Marcos down into sixth place where he ended the race, still taking his best finish of the year.

Rory spent his first Friday at the Chang International Circuit finding his way to finish 1.1seconds off a direct Q2 spot. The Scot shaved four-tenths off his best time from Friday in final practice as he amassed a valuable 12 laps ahead of Q1 where he finished in P30, 1.5seconds off Q2 as Moto2 continues to keep it close.

In the opening three laps of the race, Rory made up seven places to boost him into 23rd place before collecting another three spots into 20th spot.

Struggling with grip, the Scot lost one place to Alex Escrig but made up the position to take the chequered flag in 20th in some of the most gruelling conditions of the season.

Marcos Ramirez #24 – 6th
Overall, I’m really happy about how the weekend went. It’s a shame because, in the race, I did what I wanted at the start, but I started to drop, drop, drop – it wasn’t the type of I wanted to do as it looks like my problem is physical, but it wasn’t that. I tried to push but I felt that, with the front, I lost too much in the first sector and the other riders were faster than me. The team did a great job all weekend and we have three more so let’s keep fighting.

Rory Skinner #33 – 20th
It was definitely a hot and sweaty one, one of the hottest I’ve competed in. After the triple-header, it’s certainly taken its toll over the last three weeks. This is the first triple-header I’ve completed this season due to injury at Mugello.
It’s been good, I’ve learned a lot and, this weekend, it’s been a character-building weekend as it hasn’t quite gone the way I wanted it to at times but we’ve made steps in the right direction during the race and to recover into a top-20 place from 30th on the grid is certainly a good step.