Red Bull KTM 125 ace Tomoyoshi Koyama battled all the way in a tight pack of riders at the Dutch GP in Assen on Saturday, finishing just fractions of a second out of the podium rankings.
The pint-sized Japanese said he was quite satisfied with the race results after the team had struggled with the bike setup during qualifying on the previous days.
"My feeling for the bike wasn't good at all yesterday. But today in the race, I was able to go much faster with lap times in the mid 1.45's compared to 1.46.9 yesterday. That wasn't bad considering that we struggled with the set-up," he said.
Koyama said all the riders in the front group rode a strong race but he had had a good start and managed to latch onto the front pack straight away. "Then I dropped back for a short while and caught them again, but I didn't have the chance to pass them and take the lead myself." Koyama also observed that he had some problems with his sixth gear when he was in the slipstream of a big group.
Red Bull KTM team-mate Randy Krummenacher went into the race on Saturday still suffering from the after-effects of a heavy crash on the first day of practice in Assen. He managed to settle into his own rhythm and eventually took twelfth place at the finish line. The young Swiss rider, who celebrated his first ever podium in Spain earlier in the month, said he was quite happy with the result given his grid position. "Not much more was possible," he said.
"I had a good start, but it took me a long time to get past Espargaro and Olivé, and in the meantime, the group with Sandro Cortese got away from us," Krummenacher said. "I then settled into my own rhythm but I must say that I was a little tense on the bike because I still had a pulling sensation in head and shoulder from my crash on day one." Krummenacher had been a number of times to Moto GP's Dr. Costa but said he was still not feeling 100 percent fit on race day.
American rookie Steve Bonsey, the third member of the team, lost a lot of time in an incident in the last chicane, and ended up in 27th position.
"I had a decent start, but lost about three places in the first corner and the group I wanted to be with got away from me. I caught up to a few riders again and managed to pass Webb, but then in the chicane, I felt something slamming into me from behind. I managed to stay upright when I felt a second bang, and then I was in the gravel and lost about 15 seconds. After that, my rhythm was gone, and my lap times went down from the 1.48's to the 1.50's," Bonsey said.
Results
1. Mattia Pasini, Italy, Aprilia (38:58.171)
2. Hector Faubel, Spain, Aprilia (39:04.286)
3. Gabor Talmacsi, Hungary, Aprilia (39:04.317)
4. Sergio Gadea, Spain, Aprilia (39:04.525)
5. Simone Corsi, Italy, Aprilia (39:04.625)
6. Tomoyoshi Koyama, Japan, KTM (39:04.804)
12. Randy Krummenacher, Switzerland, KTM (39:21.109)
27. Steve Bonsey, USA, KTM (40:16.929)
Images - Kirn F.
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