Van den Goorbergh and Sasaki unable to reward strong weekend in Termas de Río Hondo with points

RW-Idrofoglia Racing GP leaves the Argentine Grand Prix at the Autódromo Termas de Río Hondo without any points. In the Moto2 race at the Argentine circuit Zonta van den Goorbergh finished seventeenth, while teammate Ayumu Sasaki crossed the line in eighteenth position.

After a strong qualifying session, where Zonta van den Goorbergh secured eleventh place on the grid, expectations were high for the race. However, it quickly became clear after the start that it would be a much tougher day, as he dropped outside the top twenty early on. Van den Goorbergh was unable to extract the maximum performance from his bike in the first half of the race, making a points finish unachievable. Thanks to a strong race pace in the second half, the 19-year-old managed to recover and finish in seventeenth place.

Ayumu Sasaki lost several positions at the start but fought his way back up to sixteenth. The Japanese rider was within reach of the points, but in the second half of the race, he had to give up several positions. Ultimately, Sasaki crossed the line in eighteenth place.

Zonta van den Goorbergh (P17 / +25,982):
“It was a race of two halves. In the first part I had a small issue with the front brake, which caused me to lose quite a bit of time. In the second half, I was able to recover some positions. The pace was strong and I was setting consistent lap times, but my best lap only came on lap 16, which usually isn’t the case in Moto2. It’s a shame about the early phase, but we worked well this weekend and definitely showed improvement. We’ll have to analyse exactly what happened and aim to continue this progress in Austin.”

Ayumu Sasaki (P18 / +29,225):
“It was difficult race today, especially the final part. In the end we didn’t manage to score points – which was our target – so I’m a little bit disappointed. However, we made a step forward from Thailand although this is not where we want to be. We know where we need to improve so we’ll work on that together. Hopefully we can achieve this and fight for points in Austin.”

Jarno Janssen – RW-Idrofoglia Racing GP team manager:
“When something isn’t completely right at the start of the race it makes things difficult, and we need to analyse exactly what happened. The data confirms there was a small issue with the front brake, and in Moto2 even losing just a few percent of braking power means you have no chance in the early laps. That’s unfortunate because we had high hopes with Zonta’s strong starting position. However, apart from the race itself, we had a solid weekend where Zonta performed well. We need to build on that in Texas.

Ayumu had a strong opening phase and was close to the points, but unfortunately, he struggled to maintain the pace towards the end of the race. We know we need to be patient and keep working hard to move forward step by step.

This weekend deserved better, and we can’t be satisfied with the results, but that’s racing. We need to look ahead and hold on to the positives.”

The next Grand Prix will take place from March 28-30 at the Circuit of The Americas in the United States of America.