Estrella Galicia 0,0 riders Sergio Garcia Dols and Ryusei Yamanaka contested the San Marino GP race this Sunday at the Misano World Circuit – Marco Simoncelli.
Yamanaka made excellent progress, climbing from 27th on the grid to 12th and setting the fastest lap of the race in the process. Garcia Dols took the chequered flag 25th, after a crash at the start of the 23-lap contest. The race was won by John McPhee.
The race took place under completely clear skies and temperatures of 28ºC (ambient) and 37ºC (track).
Estrella Galicia 0,0 will be back at Misano on Friday, September 18th, for the first Free Practice sessions for the Emilia Romagna GP.
Sergio Garcia Dols (25th, + 1’01.077)
Sergio Garcia Dols started 11th on the grid, thanks to his qualifying time of 1:42.994. He set a 1:42.602 in the warmup that placed him 10th.
Whilst he started the race keeping up with the leading group, a collision at Turn 4 ended with the Spaniard crashing, as well as Raul Fernandez and Celestino Vietti. Garcia Dols remounted in 29th, eventually moving up to 25th after complete a long lap penalty. He is 17th in the overall standings, with 19 points.
“The crash was a shame after the good progress we had made throughout the weekend. I started very well in the race, and at Turns 2 and 3 I passed several riders and was very well positioned. Going into Turn 4, I tried to overtake Celestino Vietti and I couldn’t avoid Raul Fernandez’ bike. I can only apologise to both of them and focus on the second chance we have at this circuit next week.”
Ryusei Yamanaka (12th, +1.691)
The Japanese rider continued his positive progress in the warmup, setting a time of 1:43.580 (28th) that was his best of the weekend at that point -half a second faster than his 1:44.070 from Q1.
Starting 27th on the grid, he made a magnificent recovery to move into 10th with eight laps remaining, setting the fastest lap of 1:42.752 in the process. Yamanaka finally finished 12th, just 1.6 seconds behind the race winner, and claimed points for the third time this season. He is 20th in the Moto3 World Championship with 12 points.
“It was a fantastic race. It’s hard to start from 27th position. I tried to keep my motivation high on the first laps and improve my braking, and I gained positions like that. I set the fastest lap! I really enjoyed myself. At the end I made a mistake that set me back several places, but it was because I wanted to push even harder. I think it was a good race, although we have to improve in Free Practice in the future to go directly into Q2.”
