Marcel Schrotter concluded the 13th round of the Moto2 World Championship at Misano in 17th position after a gruelling race despite his best efforts. He commenced the 26 lap sprint from the seventh row of the grid after qualifying in 19th position and undertook a solid start to jump up four places by the close of the first lap as he joined in the battle for the points. After setting into his fierce race pace, the young German plugged away and climbed up to 11th on lap 7. He continued his fight as he looked to close in on the top ten, yet, the rear tyre grip level started to drop at this point and caused him to drop back to 16th with over half race distance being completed. However, Schrotter continued to push aboard the Mistral 610 as the race distance progressed, but the luckless German began to struggle with the worsening grip level. Still, he managed to move past Syahrin on lap 22, yet his issue caused him to slip back and he eventually finished the race in 17th and just outside of the points.
On the other side of the garage, Xavi Vierge was unfortunate to fall in his fourth Moto2 race yet bravely remounted to finish the GP in 23rd position. The young Spaniard kicked off proceedings from 28th on the grid after a tricky qualifying campaign despite a promising day on Friday. Vierge leapt into action as soon as the lights went out and after navigating his way around the circuit, he closed the first lap in 26th. He then locked into his rhythm and upped his pace to climb through the pack to 21st by lap 5. The 18 year old remained fully determined and snatched 18th one lap later, marking a shift of 10 places since the race start. He then continued his battle, however on the 11th lap his luck turned and he fell. Vierge remounted despite the large gap to the riders in front and determinedly finished the race in 23rd position. Nevertheless he will fully intend to bounce back at the next Grand Prix in Aragon, which marks the first track where he has previously ridden a Moto2 bike.
Marcel Schrotter – Position : 17th – Championship : 21 – Points : 19
“It’s such a shame about what happened in the race as I was doing well until the final stages. We knew it would be tricky, but I had a great start and in the first few laps I was closing in on the top ten. I was comfortably running in the points for the majority of the race, yet halfway through the tyre started to drop and finally, in the last six laps or so, it was completely destroyed. Pieces of the tyre came off the bike, it was just impossible to go fast and so I was two to three seconds a lap slower. However, I thought I could still finish in 15th as the gap behind was five seconds, but in two laps they had caught up with me and passed. It’s a big pity that I couldn’t get into the top fifteen, but I wasn’t able to do anything about it in the end. The team and I made a joint decision to use that tyre as it was working well for us all weekend but it looks like it affected some other riders as well. So it’s disappointing to say the least, but we have to think of the positives and move onto the next race.”
Xavi Vierge – Position : 23th – Championship : Not Classified
“Of course I am disappointed with the end result after all of the hard work that the team and I put in. It’s even more of a shame to finish the event like this after the good day that we had on Friday but as the weekend went on it became a bit trickier. Yet, the team worked perfectly every day and it’s just unfortunate that we couldn’t finish the race well this afternoon. In the GP itself, I had a good start and stayed in the group fighting for 16th, more or less. Things were going well, but I lost the front nearly halfway through the race and it was impossible to save the crash. I remounted afterwards and eventually finished in 23rd but I can’t hide my frustration. We have a test here tomorrow where we aim to improve my riding style as well as the bike we’ll be back stronger than ever in Aragon and I will give my all there. I know the track well so I hope to get a good result to pay the team back for their great work.”
Hervé Poncharal – Team Manager :
“It was a very unfortunate weekend for the Tech3 Racing Moto2 Team after all of the effort that was put in. This GP started really well for us with Xavi shining in the Friday practice sessions, but sadly his luck changed after that as he crashed twice in qualifying and then again in the race. It’s a shame but also a bit unnecessary, as he is here to learn, but having said that he has the potential to be a World Championship Moto2 rider. On Marcel’s side, it was a frustrating ending. He did well in qualifying, even though the position was not ideal, but he was close to the front guys with his lap time. He had a good start and pushed really hard to get up to 11th, yet with three laps to go we understood that there was a big problem because the times dropped dramatically. Usually, it would be impossible for the riders behind to catch him because there was a gap of five seconds but they did, so we knew something was up. When Marcel came into the garage, the tyre had almost exploded which is a worry and could be a safety concern. The same thing happened to other riders too but that doesn’t change the situation as he was clearly in a point scoring position. Anyway, we have a test tomorrow and hopefully we can find some solutions. Nevertheless, we are sad because we did all of the hard work and had high expectations but in the end there were no points. Having said that, this is racing so we will regroup and come back stronger.”