Great recovery of Rabat in Qatar, Simeon finishes his first race in MotoGP

MotoGP GP of Qatar – Losail International Circuit

Reale Avintia Racing team rider Tito Rabat, started the season with a solid eleventh position in the first race of the 2018 MotoGP World Championship tonight in Qatar. The start wasn’t so good, with the former Moto2 World Champion losing several places and crossing the finish line 21^st after the first lap. But Rabat kept focused. With a consistent race pace, he was able to pass his rivals to finish only half a second away from the Top 10.
His teammate Xavier Simeon was 21^st in his debut in the premier class. He fulfilled his first goal of finishing the race, which is a valuable experience for the next rounds. He improved his pace lap by lap and set his personal fastest lap towards the end.
The teams will now fly to Argentina for the second round of the season, which will take place in just three weeks.

“I’m very happy with our start of the season. We had a complete weekend and we have had a bit of everything, good times, others not so good, but we kept calm and I worked very closely with my team. At the start, I had some problems that we have to check, because I lost many places. But afterwards I started to set my pace and was overtaking people quite easily. When I finished the race, I was only 15 seconds behind the winner, which was a nice surprise and a new record for me in MotoGP. I’m very, very happy with the Ducati, this bike suits my riding style and the team has been perfect as well”.

“When you start from the last place of the grid, it is difficult to set a goal for the race. During the winter test I never did a complete race simulation and this has been my first race in every sense. Overall I’m satisfied, I’ve been improving every lap and I clocked my fastest time on the 19^th lap, which is very positive for me. The level in MotoGP is very high this year, last year I would have scored points with the lap times I did today. At least, I’ve gained experience and I finished my first race, with pretty decent lap times. We will continue working to do better in Argentina”.