San Carlo Honda rider Simoncelli finishes 4th as Aoyama claims 11th spot at San Marino GP – MotoGP
San Carlo Honda Gresini rider Marco Simoncelli came fourth after a hard battle with compatriot from Repsol Honda, Andrea Dovizioso.
Super Sic had an average start to the San Marino GP which dropped his chances to fight for a podium finish. In a ideal situation, he could have had a clear shot for podium place. However, the fourth place finish made up for him at his home ground.
Simoncelli said, “A podium finish is always more satisfying than fourth place of course, but this result feels just as nice because it was such a close and hard fight at the end. Unfortunately I made a mistake and chose the wrong engine map at the start
which made me lose touch with the front three.”
He claimed that the wrong choice on the engine setup made him lose the tail of front-end riders as Simoncelli was more than 17 seconds off from Lorenzo to cross the finish line.
After he maintained his pace, Dovizioso closed up on his tail challenging him for the position. In the second half of the race, the fight heated up with Dovizioso and Ben Spies.
Holding fourth place for about 23 laps he was not ready to lose his earned position to Dovizioso and Spies. He enjoyed the race day and he expressed his thanks for the fans who supported him every time.
Meanwhile, Simoncelli claimed fourth while his Japanese teammate Hiroshi Aoyama came 11th in the race. The Japanese rider conducted a series of mistakes which did not enable him to fight for top ten seats.
Aoyama said, “I didn't have a good feeling this morning but in the afternoon things went much better. That was a really tough race and with the heat it felt like we were in Malaysia. I am not delighted with the result but I’m happy that we set some good
consistent laps.”
His consistent lap pace provided confidence, that he could deliver a better performance in the next rounds. Overall, it was a great race weekend for Aoyama which will be beneficial in the upcoming rounds.
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