MotoGP – GP of Valencia – Ricardo Tormo Circuit
Reale Avintia Racing rider Jordi Torres scored his first ever MotoGP World Championship point today at Valencia. Torres was the only rider of the team at the last race of the season, after Xavier Simeon was declared unfit to race due to concussion.
With his left thumb operated just one week before the race, Torres took advantage of the rain, since he needed to apply less pressure on the handlebars in wet conditions. The target of the Spanish rider was to finish the race, which he achieved.
The race was red-flagged due to heavy rain after about half the distance and restarted for the remaining 14 laps. In both heats, Torres finished in the point rankings and was cheered on by 97.201 fans who were stoically watching the action from the grandstands even in torrential rain.
On Tuesday, the new 2019 season kicks off for Team Reale Avintia Racing, with the first official MotoGP test at the Ricardo Tormo Circuit. Tito Rabat will return to action almost three months after his leg injury. He will have a new teammate, Karel Abraham fro the Czech Republic. Both riders will have brand new Ducati GP18 in the garage.
“Today was a good day. Yesterday I rode six or seven laps in dry conditions and I had no force left in my hand whatsoever. We were aware that dry conditions would be difficult for us, but in the wet I knew I would be able to finish the race. I had a good start, but on the first laps there was zero visibility because of the spray from the other bikes. Visibility improved with every lap and I tried to follow the group in front of me, but as everybody could see, it was quite easy to crash in today’s conditions. Then they decided to stop the race. In the second heat I tried to ride as smoothly as possible, because the target was to finish the race and to secure our first point, which we did. I want to say a big thank you to my team because they did a fantastic job to adapt the handlebar to my hand and to Dr. Mir, because he did a master job with my hand and only one week after the surgery I was able to race”.
