Bo Bendsneyder and Simone Corsi had the points in sight in the Moto2 race of the Grand Prix of San Marino & Riviera di Rimini, but they just didn’t manage to grab them. Bendsneyder was the closest to it in seventeenth place at the finish line of the Misano World Circuit Marco Simoncelli. Corsi fell back in the final phase from sixteenth to nineteenth place. Both riders of NTS RW Racing GP fought a fierce battle in a group of about ten. Corsi in particular did good business in this bunch. Started from position 22, he quickly advanced to seventeenth. After a good start, Bendsneyder needed a little more time to come forward and was stuck in 19th place for a while. Due to a crash of Tetsuta Nagashima in the fifteenth lap, they both moved up a place and it seemed that it would stay that way for a long time. A few laps before the end, however, Corsi lost power due to a problem with the exhaust, causing him to fall back to nineteenth and Bendsneyder moved to place 17. “We want to grab points, so we can’t be satisfied with the result, but it wasn’t a race to be dissatisfied with either,” said NTS RW Racing GP team manager Jarno Janssen. “Bo had a reasonable start and fought back well. The pace was very high and in this field a few minor mistakes are immediately punished. Simone has had a good race, certainly considering that it was his first one on this machine. We have to pick out the positive points and build on that next week in Aragon.”
Bo Bendsneyder (17 at 32.104): “Of course I am not satisfied with the final result, but it was not a bad race. Certainly the final phase was strong. I made two mistakes, one in the beginning and one in the middle, when I wanted to overtake another rider and ran wide. Fortunately, I was able to make up for that, but to be able to go for points in this competitive field, you cannot afford mistakes like that. What has become clear this weekend is that in the second free practice I have to take bigger steps to be in a better position the rest of the weekend. That has proved to be the crucial point here. I also learned from Corsi. He has a very different riding style than me, but we can use information from there to see what I can do differently and better.”
Race results:
Pos | Rider | Team | Time / Gap |
1 | Augusto FERNANDEZ | FLEXBOX HP 40 | 41’12.535 |
2 | Fabio DI GIANNANTONIO | Ego Speed Up | 0.186 |
3 | Alex MARQUEZ | EG 0,0 Marc VDS | 1.283 |
4 | Thomas LUTHI | Dynavolt Intact GP | 2.733 |
5 | Sam LOWES | Federal Oil Gresini Moto2 | 8.764 |
6 | Brad BINDER | Red Bull KTM Ajo | 8.952 |
7 | Jorge NAVARRO | Ego Speed Up | 9.928 |
8 | Xavi VIERGE | EG 0,0 Marc VDS | 12.844 |
9 | Enea BASTIANINI | Italtrans Racing Team | 13.916 |
10 | Lorenzo BALDASSARRI | FLEXBOX HP 40 | 15.338 |
11 | Luca MARINI | SKY Racing Team VR46 | 17.881 |
12 | Jorge MARTIN | Red Bull KTM Ajo | 20.511 |
13 | Andrea LOCATELLI | Italtrans Racing Team | 21.714 |
14 | Somkiat CHANTRA | IDEMITSU Honda Team Asia | 28.673 |
15 | Stefano MANZI | MV Agusta Temporary Forward | 30.791 |
16 | Joe ROBERTS | American Racing KTM | 31.679 |
17 | Bo BENDSNEYDER | NTS RW Racing GP | 32.104 |
18 | Dominique AEGERTER | MV Agusta Temporary Forward | 32.324 |
19 | Simone CORSI | NTS RW Racing GP | 34.048 |
20 | Jake DIXON | Sama Qatar Angel Nieto Team | 45.708 |
21 | Iker LECUONA | American Racing KTM | 47.521 |
22 | Lukas TULOVIC | Kiefer Racing | 54.782 |
23 | Philipp OETTL | Red Bull KTM Tech 3 | 57.945 |
24 | Andi Farid IZDIHAR | Honda Team Asia | +1’03.822 |
25 | Xavi CARDELUS | Sama Qatar Angel Nieto Team | +1’07.021 |
Not Classified | |||
Tetsuta NAGASHIMA | ONEXOX TKKR SAG Team | 12 Laps | |
Remy GARDNER | ONEXOX TKKR SAG Team | 15 Laps | |
Nicolo BULEGA | SKY Racing Team VR46 | 15 Laps | |
Marco BEZZECCHI | Red Bull KTM Tech 3 | 19 Laps | |
Adam NORRODIN | Petronas Sprinta Racing | 20 Laps |
Source: motogp.com, rwracinggp.com