Alonso Lopez and Sergio Garcia Dols contested the San Marino GP on Sunday at the Misano World Circuit Marco Simoncelli.
Garcia Dols suffered a crash on the opening lap, whilst on the next time around it was Lopez who was forced to retire under similar circumstances.
Mostly clear skies and temperatures of 33ºC on track greeted the pair for the 23-lap race, which was eventually won by Japanese rider Tatsuki Suzuki.
The Estrella Galicia 0,0 Moto3 duo will be back in action on September 20th, for the first Free Practice session for the Aragon Grand Prix.
ALONSO LÓPEZ – “I think we could have had a good race”
Due to an injury to another rider, Lopez moved up a place on the grid. He had qualified 22nd thanks to a Q1 time of 1:43.849, but would start from 21st. In the warmup he clocked the 24th best time, a 1:44.050.
The Spaniard regained ground when the lights went out and moved up into 17th, rounding off a large front group. On Lap 2, however, he suffered a sudden crash at Turn 2. Although he escaped without serious injury, it brought his race to a premature end.
Lopez is now 21st in the overall standings with 34 points.
“On the one hand I’m satisfied with the work we did, which led us to make a good start in the race, but at the same time I feel very upset -because I think that without the crash we could have had a good race and been in the first or second group. It was a shame about the crash when I was overtaking Kornfeil; I lost the rear.”
SERGIO GARCÍA – “I suddenly found myself on the ground”
Sergio García Dols started 25th on the grid due to his Q1 time of 1:44.121, also gaining a place through the absence of his injured fellow Moto3 competitor. In the warmup he set a 1:44.592 for 27th.
He fought to gain ground off the line, but an incident with another rider at Turn 8 of the opening lap saw him eliminated from the race.
García Dols is 25th in the World Championship, with 9 points.
“I made a good start, gaining several places, but then I crashed at Turn 8. I suddenly found myself on the ground, without warning; it was all very confusing. I hope to have a good race in Aragon that compensates for this bad result.”
