Fieten Olie Racing GP closes 2023 season at Valencia with points

Barry Baltus finished 14th in the Moto2 race at the Circuit Ricardo Tormo in Valencia on Sunday afternoon. In doing so, the Belgian scored two points for Fieten Olie Racing GP in the last Grand Prix of the season. Zonta van den Goorbergh crossed the finish line in 18th place in the final race of 2023.

After strong performances during qualifying on Saturday, the Fieten Olie Racing GP team had hopes of ending the year with points in the Moto2 race in Valencia. Barry Baltus rode a very good opening lap and immediately moved up to 11th position before moving up to 10th. The Belgian rider was able to hold on for a long time and kept world champion Pedro Acosta, among others, behind him for a long time. In the closing stages Baltus lost several positions and eventually crossed the line in fourteenth place, scoring two points. In the championship, the 19-year-old rider finished seventeenth with a total of 55 points.

Zonta van den Goorbergh also made up positions immediately after the start and was close to the top fifteen for a long time. Halfway through the race, the Dutchman lost connection with the points’ positions after which he crossed the finish line in eighteenth place in the last race of 2023. With the seventeen points he has scored this year, Van den Goorbergh is 23rd in the final standings of the Moto2 championship.

Barry Baltus – P14: “To be honest I am a bit disappointed with today’s race. In the end the result isn’t great and we finished the season by losing one place in the championship. Therefore I cannot be happy with how we ended today but the next season starts already tomorrow so we’ll keep working on improving ourselves.”

Zonta van den Goorbergh – P18: “I want to start by thanking the whole team, sponsors and partners for this year. We have had great and not so great moments but I think in the end we can definitely be satisfied with what we have achieved. About the race itself, I am not satisfied because of the position but I did enjoy riding again for the first time in a long time. That was today’s main goal to have fun and finish the race, which we managed to do. We finished 26 seconds off the winner and normally you score a point then, but after the start nobody went down anymore and the pace was pretty high. We can be reasonably satisfied and now we are already looking at tomorrow when we will test with the Pirelli tyres, after that it is time for some well-deserved rest for everyone.”

Jarno Janssen – Fieten Olie Racing GP team manager: “The season has come to an end and I think we ended it in a good way. It was a tough race for Barry and Zonta but we can be happy with the progress we have made this season and what we have achieved. The result is what it is and that’s where we are. Tomorrow we already start the 2024 season, then we will be running Pirelli tyres and everything starts all over again.”

On Monday, the Fieten Olie Racing GP team returns to action at the Circuit Ricardo Tormo in Valencia to test the Pirelli tyres the Moto2 class will race with from 2024. After that, it will be time for a well-deserved winter break.