MotoGP – GP of the Czech Republic – Brno
The weekend of Tito Rabat in the Czech Republic started in a perfect way. On Saturday, he made the move to the Q2 directly and in the race on Sunday, he had the best start of the season so far and got away with the top group. The rider of Team Reale Avintia Racing clocked the fastest lap of the race on lap five and rode along comfortably with Honda factory rider Dani Pedrosa.
But on lap nine, bad luck struck once again. A technical problem left Rabat without any options, his bike simply stopped and there was no way to get it going again. Ducati immediately started a thorough analysis, trying to solve this problem for once and for all, because it was not the first race in which Rabat was left without reward due to a fault within the exhaust system. Nevertheless, Tito’s motivation remains high and he hopes for a great comeback from this disappointment with a strong result at Spielberg next week.
For team-mate Xavier Simeon, the race was a positive experience. The Belgian rider was able to put up a fight with Luthi, Abraham y Guintoli in the last group of riders. Only on the last laps of the race, the wear of his rear tyre had reached a point that made it impossible for himi to continue the battle until the chequered flag.
Team Reale Avintia Racing will now travel to Spielberg to contest the Austrian Grand Prix, where both Rabat and Simeon hope to finish higher up in the classification.
“This weekend was very positive until we ran into bad luck in the race. I had a phenomenal start and I think that I finally learned to start well with this motorcycle. And on the first laps, that are normally tough for me, I managed to hang on to the race leaders. But then, the bike simply stopped. We don’t know precisely what happened, but it’s a real shame because we could have scored a good result today. Even though, I repeat that I am satisfied, because I improved in areas in which I had struggled before. Now we go to Austria where I really want to show our progress in the race on Sunday.”
“I honestly think that this was a good race. I had a very good start, I recovered a number of positions on the first lap and I felt good on the bike. But five or six laps from the end, the rear tyre performance dropped and it was difficult to continue the battle with Abraham and Guintoli. Apart from that, the race went well and I saw things that will be useful in the next races to come. Now we go to Austria, a circuit that should be good for Ducati. Let’s wait and see”.
