Anthony West of QMMF Racing Team takes a bend on his Speed Up bike during the Moto2 race at the Misano Marco Simoncelli Circuit in eastern Italy. RIGHT: Rafid Topan Sucipto is seen at the starting grid.
MISANO, Italy: QMMF Racing Team riders Anthony West and Rafid Topan Sucipto had an exciting Grand Prix of San Marino with thrilling battles and results that boosted everybody’s confidence for the last five races of the season.
West started from 19th position on the grid but started to hunt down his rivals straight away, taking 14th position on the first lap and working his way up steadily up through the point rankings.
With new-found confidence in the front end of his Speed Up bike, he even had a top-10 finish within his reach, but ran wide when another rider clipped his rear wheel.
In the end, West saved eleventh place, which was a great result after a string of difficult races.
Young team-mate Rafid Topan Sucipto also put up a strong fight, defending his position against six other riders in the initial stages of the race.
The teenager from Indonesia could realistically have scored 24th place, but fell and lost two positions to take 26th.
However, his lap times and his fighting spirit were strong indications of better times to come in near future.
“If I look back how the last few races have been going until now, I am happy with this race and I think it is a good result,” West said. “The direction we are going with the bike is also good. Recently, I had a lot of problems with the bike, but I also had a lot of problems with other issues outside of the racetrack that affected me.
“The first day here at Misano was still difficult, but on Sunday in the morning session, I started to feel really good with the front of bike. We lost this feeling a little bit again in qualifying, so I couldn’t qualify as well as I expected and I knew it was going to be a tough race.
“But I had more confidence than on Friday. I knew I would be able to fight from the start of the race to the end. I felt really strong and I was able to catch riders and pass them all the time, which I wasn’t able to do in the past,” the Australian said.
Sucipto said: “On one side, I am happy with the race, because my lap times got better again and I was able to put up a fight. But obviously, I am not happy about the fact that I crashed. I managed to ride on and to finish the race, but without the fall, I would have continued to push and probably scored 24th place instead of 26th!”
THE PENINSULA
