Twelfth place for Baltus in Barcelona, Van den Goorbergh eighteenth after strong race

Barry Baltus finished twelfth in the Moto2 race at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya on Sunday afternoon. The Belgian rider did not make a good start but then came back strongly. Zonta van den Goorbergh ended a postive weekend with eighteenth place but did not reward himself with points.

Starting from tenth on the grid, Barry Baltus did not get away well and fell back to nineteenth position on the first lap. He soon managed to make up places and move towards the front thanks to good pace and successful overtakes. In the end, he scored four world championship points by crossing the finish line in twelfth place, which now puts him fifteenth in the championship.

Zonta van den Goorbergh did start well and managed to make up three positions on the first lap. The seventeen-year-old Dutchman managed to set a good pace but had to give up a few places. He eventually crossed the finish line in eighteenth place, eighteen seconds behind the winner. Unfortunately that meant no points but once again it showed this weekend that great strides have been made since the summer break.

Barry Baltus – P12: “It was not a bad race for us today but the only thing missing was a good start. For the rest it was a very good race with a strong pace and I was able to make multiple passes. Therefore I am quite happy with today, tomorrow we will ride again to check out the Pirelli tyres.”

Zonta van den Goorbergh – P18: “Eighteenth position may not sound great but in the end I finished eighteen seconds off the winner. That means I lost about 0.7 seconds per lap to the fastest rider after the first lap so we can be quite satisfied with that. In front of me no incident happened and nobody crashed out so unfortunately we just missed out on the points again. In the end we can be quite happy with how the weekend went, we continued on the right foot after Austria. After Silverstone we had two good weekends so I’m already looking forward to Misano again where we can hopefully take home some points.”

Jarno Janssen – Fieten Olie Racing GP team manager: “It was a very good day for us today. Of course, we come here for points and we are getting closer to that but Zonta rode a very good race today in which he finished just behind a title contender. That shows the progress that has been made in recent weeks and we need to continue that in the coming races.

Barry unfortunately made a bad start and we don’t often see that from him. He lost nine places on the first lap and then you see it becomes very difficult to make up for it. Then you have to be a lot faster than the riders in front of you and luckily he was, riding lap times that were good for a place among the first eight. He was able to make overtakes and then a twelfth place is just a good result. We want to consistently finish in the points and now we are already looking forward to next weekend in Misano.”

Fieten Olie Racing GP will take part in a one-day test at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya on Monday where the Pirelli tyres can be tried for the first time, which will be the new tyre supplier in the Moto2 class in 2024. The next Grand Prix will take place next weekend from 8 to 10 September at the Misano World Circuit Marco Simoncelli.