San Carlo Honda Gresini rider Marco Simoncelli takes fourth place at Gran Premio de Aragon – MotoGP
San Carlo Honda Gresini rider Marco Simoncelli claimed fourth place while teammate Hiroshi Aoyama finished 11th at the Motorland Aragon GP held on Sunday, September 18, 2011.
The Italian rider was strong from the beginning as he galloped close to the top riders’ pack. Super Sic was riding well but later in the race, he was hampered by the severe tyre wear out.
Marco Simoncelli said, “I am pleased with this result – we had to grit our teeth and I'm sure that even without the mistake I wouldn't have been challenging for the podium anyway. Lorenzo was faster than me on used tyres so no complaints there.”
Following a bad start in the race, he still managed to pace up and stay close to the top pack. After getting his act together, he made some passes. Super Sic was third in the race after over taking Jorge Lorenzo and Ben Spies.
As the race went on Simoncelli was dreadful on his tyres. Initially he lost the battle to Lorenzo and then he was tangled up with Ben Spies. The Texan rider was apparently fast but the tyre wear hampered his pace.
Spies’ issue was even worse than Simoncelli’s condition so the Italian was at gain by the end of the race. Although Super Sic raced well but on the other side, Spies was also attacked by Alvaro Bautista. It significantly helped Simoncelli for a fourth position.
In the last pack of the riders, Simoncelli’s teammate Hiroshi Aoyama was fighting hard with renewed confidence aboard his Honda Gresini RCV. Aoyama was seventh to start the race but could not keep it up.
Aoyama said, “It was a nice race and a fun battle with Rossi and Crutchlow. The final position isn't great but I am happy with the way I rode in difficult conditions, with much less grip than yesterday which made it tough.”
However, he was able to strongly challenge the Italian veteran, Valentino Rossi and MotoGP rookie Cal Crutchlow. On some corners, he perfectly held off Rossi and closely chased Crutchlow.
Now he aims to deliver a good show at the Japanese Grand Prix scheduled to take place on October 2, 2011.
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