RW-Idrofoglia Racing GP unable to capitalize on strong qualifying, Van den Goorbergh scores three points

Zonta van den Goorbergh finished 13th in Sunday afternoon’s Moto2 race at the Balaton Park Circuit in Hungary. The Dutchman was unable to fully capitalize on his second place on the grid and eventually crossed the line in 13th, after it became clear during the race that he was lacking significant top speed. Teammate Ayumu Sasaki was once again on his way to a points finish but unfortunately crashed out in the penultimate lap.

With Van den Goorbergh starting from the front row in second and Sasaki from the third row, expectations were high for Sunday’s Hungarian Grand Prix. Van den Goorbergh got away well but ran wide in the first corner, dropping back to eighth in the opening lap. Over the course of the 22-lap race it became evident that the Dutchman was lacking several kilometers per hour in top speed, making it very difficult to defend himself against the competition. In the end, the 19-year-old crossed the finish line in 13th, securing three valuable World Championship points.

Teammate Ayumu Sasaki rode inside the top ten during the first half of the race but later had to give up a few positions. The Japanese rider looked set to finish 11th but crashed out in the penultimate lap, leaving him empty-handed.

Zonta van den Goorbergh (P13 / +14.639):
“In the end it was a really tough race today. It’s difficult to fight when you keep getting overtaken on the straight before braking. Despite that, we were still able to score a few points today, and yesterday was a very positive day for us. We’ll take that with us to Barcelona, where we will get a new engine and hopefully be able to extract a bit more performance.”

Ayumu Sasaki (DNF):
“It was a big shame to crash out just two laps before the end of the race. Until then we had a good race, we were riding in 11^th position before the race. I was struggling a bit in the second part of the race, otherwise our pace was very good and I felt strong on the bike. There are many positives we can take from this weekend, although we need to improve in the second part of the race. Overall we had a great weekend, so we’ll take to positives and come back stronger in Barcelona after a week of reflection.”

Jarno Janssen – RW-Idrofoglia Racing GP team manager:
“After a very strong qualifying day we were in a great position for this race. Unfortunately, that ultimately resulted in a crash for Ayumu and 13th place for Zonta, which of course was not what we had hoped for. We know both riders are very competitive and in this class everything has to come together. Everything needs to be in place to perform and today it just didn’t. In the end, though, we still had a good weekend and showed that both riders can be right up there in this competitive Moto2 class. We need to turn those strong practice results into good race results, and that’s what we will continue to focus on.”

The next Grand Prix will take place from 5–7 September at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya.