July 2019 - Page 2 of 2

The Reale Avintia Racing Team riders arrived at the Dutch Grand Prix with optimism, as Tito Rabat achieved his first Top 10 of the season in the Catalan GP and Karel Abraham had also made a good weekend in Montmeló, despite an unfortunate crash in the race.

However, both riders struggled more than expected in Assen. On the one hand, Karel Abraham qualified in an acceptable 16th position for the race on Sunday. On the other hand, Tito Rabat suffered a crash on Saturday that would condition his work plan and would make him start in last in grid (21st).

The race was difficult and Tito Rabat and Karel Abraham were on the bottom of the race classification most of the laps. Rabat finished 16th, so close to points. Abraham crashed with six laps remaining and, although his Ducati GP18 suffered some damage, he continued to finish the race.

”Complicated weekend. Assen is a very physically demanding circuit and even more considering that I came from an operation in the leg and my tendon hurted behind the knee. The first two days hurted more, today in the warm up the pain disappeared down but it has returned in the race. It penalized me because it is one of the worst circuits for the Ducati, you have to change a lot of direction. In the race I tried to follow the group in front but I made a mistake and when I was alone I could not go full throttle on the straights, I had to use the rear brake even in sixth gear because the bike moved a lot. After half a race, the rear brake temperature went up and sometimes it stopped working. I tried to get some points but it was not possible today. The positive part is that we have another race next week to get rid of the thorn.”

”It was a bad day today. Friday and Saturday were good and I was happy with everthing, I think we did a really good job with lap times. I felt relaxed for the race and strong to fight for 12th or 13th. However, after the start, which was really bad, I couldn’t do anything as I wasn’t fast. We made a few mistakes in the set up that I would like to change for Sachsenring and I just didn’t have a good feeling with both front and rear tyres. I couldn’t follow the riders that overtook me as Oliveira or Tito himself. Then, I was just trying to finish the race but unfortunately I lost the front in a corner. I picked up the bike and continued in order to finish the race.”

The race weekend in Assen was the scene of Stefano Nepa’s debut with the Reale Avintia Arizona 77 in the Moto3 World Championship. The Italian rider started the race from 27th position on the grid.

Once the race started, there was a large group of riders and, although at times it seemed that it was going to break, the changes of leadership in the head of the race, the strong wind and the low pace made the riders regroup once again.

Despite the fact that at the beginning it was a clean race, overtaking went on as the laps went by and cause several crashes and Stefano Nepa saw the oportunity to gain positions until crossing the finish line in the Top 20.

Stefano Nepa

”The race went quite well, in the first few laps I was able to stay with the group but, unfortunately, afterwards I did not have a good rhythm and I lost contact with the group but this is only the beginning and we have to work hard to go forward. I have to thank the team and the mechanics who have done a great job these three days and also thanks to the sponsors and my family. We’ll try again in Sachsenring.”