Pasini scores points for Fieten Olie Racing GP in Italian Grand Prix

Mattia Pasini finished 11th in the Moto2 race at the Autodromo Internazionale del Mugello on Sunday afternoon. The Italian managed to move up from eighteenth on the grid thanks to a strong early part of the race. Barry Baltus finished 16^th and therefore scoring no points, while Zonta van den Goorbergh crashed midway through the race whilst close to the top fifteen.

After Saturday’s qualifying in which Pasini finished 18th, Baltus 19th and Van den Goorbergh 22nd, it was already clear that the Moto2 race at the Autodromo Internazionale del Mugello was going to be a difficult one. With plenty of sunshine and relatively high temperatures, it was therefore a challenging race.

Pasini immediately moved up to 11th place because of a great opening lap and was even riding in eighth position on the fourth lap. The Italian held this position for a long time but in the closing stages of the race he eventually dropped back to eleventh position. Baltus also managed to make up a lot of positions in the opening lap and moved up to P14, before even moving up to P11 on the fifth lap. The Belgian rider also had to give up ground in the closing stages and eventually crossed finish line sixteenth.

Like his teammates, Van den Goorbergh was strong in the opening lap in which he moved up to seventeenth position. The seventeen-year-old Dutchman was then embroiled in a battle for points but crashed out on the tenth lap, which would prevent him from crossing the finish line.

Mattia Pasini – P11: “I am quite happy with today’s race. Unfortunately we paid the price for a bad qualifying and that made for a difficult race. I was able to do a very good opening lap with a lot of overtakes, then I was able to ride a strong pace in the first part of the race. I tried to manage my tyres but at the end I made a couple mistakes, therefore I wasn’t able to fight for P8. That was my target for today because of the group I was riding in but unfortunately I couldn’t make it happen.

In the end I’m happy with this weekend, it isn’t easy to fight for good positions in this championship and make all the correct decisions in just one race. We have showed that we are a good team and that we have the speed, so I’m looking forward to see what’s in store for us in the future. I want to thank Jarno, Fieten Olie and all the guys in the box that have welcomed me into their family.”

Barry Baltus – P16: “This was not the race I wanted. At a certain point it was not so bad and I was up to eleventh, but in the second half of the race I didn’t have the pace anymore and lost the right feeling with the bike. It has not been our weekend and we need to learn from it. We know what we need to improve for Germany so now our focus is on next weekend.”

Zonta van den Goorbergh – DNF: “This is obviously not the result I had hoped for but I can still be reasonably satisfied with the race I did. I lacked some speed but was in the fight for points. After I was overtaken by another rider I suddenly lost the front, I don’t know exactly what went wrong there. Of course it’s a shame but I’m happy with the potential we showed today. We have had some bad luck in the last races but we will try our best again at the Sachsenring to get a good result there.”

Jarno Janssen – Fieten Olie Racing GP team manager: “We weren’t able to get the results we hoped for today. Barry and Zonta had quite a good start to the race with Barry close to the top ten and Zonta riding near the points positions. Unfortunately, Barry made a few mistakes a lap before the end and lost focus and several positions as a result. Zonta crashed but he was in a fight for the points so that is positive, him crashing is just what happens in a race when you are fighting for something. I’m happy with that as well.

As a result, Mattia is the only one who scored points for the team today and he also rode a really solid race. It’s a good result for him and the team and we can only look back on that with a good feeling. Our focus is now on next weekend in Germany.”

The next Grand Prix is already coming next weekend. From 16 -18 June, the German Grand Prix will be held at the Sachsenring.