Disappointing end to Indonesian Grand Prix for Fieten Olie Racing GP with double DNF

The Indonesian Grand Prix ended on a disappointing note for Fieten Olie Racing GP on Sunday. Zonta van den Goorbergh was once again fighting for points until he crashed heavily on the ninth lap. Barry Baltus rode a good race after a difficult weekend until a technical defect meant he would not finish either.

With Zonta van den Goorbergh starting from ninth place, the aim was to score a lot of points for the third weekend in a row. The Dutchman was well underway to do that despite a minor technical issue on his machine and he was fighting for a place in the top ten. Unfortunately, his race came to an end at the end of the ninth lap with a crash coming out of turn 16. Van den Goorbergh was taken to the medical centre for a check-up but is unhurt.

After a difficult Friday and Saturday, it was important for Barry Baltus to get the good feeling back with his Moto2 machine on Sunday. Despite giving up a number of positions on the opening lap, he then came out strongly and built up his rhythm. Unfortunately, the Belgian rider would also fail to finish as he suffered a gearbox issue.

Barry Baltus: “Today it went a bit better than yesterday and I started to enjoy riding a bit again. In the end we didn’t manage to finish the race because of an issue with the gearbox but the laps we did were not too bad. These things can happen. I was fighting with Ai Ogura and with our tyre choice the plan was to be stronger at the end of the race. We weren’t aiming for a big points’ finish but it was a good battle. I enjoyed these couple of laps and that is important to go forward. Now we go to Australia to do it all again next weekend, I hope we can be stronger with a fresh mind.”

Zonta van den Goorbergh: “It is very unfortunate to end the race this way. We found out in the sighting lap that we had a technical problem, we thought this was solved on the grid but it turned out not to be the case. The race ended with a big crash which is very disappointing because we were fast all weekend and I felt good. It unfortunately wasn’t to be today and this is part of racing. Fortunately I haven’t broken anything and I can start again in Australia, even though I feel pretty sore now. Next weekend we will try our hardest again.”

Jarno Janssen – Fieten Olie Racing GP team manager: “Sometimes you have those Sundays when things don’t fall into place and today was one of those days. With Barry, we knew it was going to be a difficult race because the whole weekend has been tough on his side. You rarely see a very big turnaround from Saturday to Sunday but he still started the race well. Unfortunately, he had to abandon the race due to a gearbox problem. That does describe his weekend a bit and we now have to pick ourselves up for the next race at Phillip Island. He is strong there and we are eagerly looking forward to that.

What Zonta showed all weekend was obviously very strong but this race was unfortunately ended early with a crash while he was fighting for a good position. Fortunately, he did not suffer anything from that. We noticed that there was something wrong with his machine in the sighting lap and that caused him to push so much, resulting in this crash. Something like that should not happen and as a team we have to take responsibility for that. Phillip Island is a virtually new track for Zonta as he was injured in the first practice session last year. If he can maintain the form of the last few weekends, I am confident of a good Grand Prix next week.”

The next Grand Prix will be held next weekend from 20 to 22 October at the Phillip Island Grand Prix Circuit in Australia.