Japanese GP: Race Report
The Japanese Grand Prix, the first overseas round of the last part of the season, proved to be a challenging weekend for the team. A race weekend marked by crashes saw the team leave the Mobility Resort Motegi without any points, with Joel Kelso finishing 17th and Eddie O’Shea crashing out with two laps remaining.
The weekend at Motegi was marked by a number of crashes. The first came on Friday during Practice, when Eddie crashed and was unable to set a fast enough lap to progress directly through to Q2. He was not the only rider to crash during the session, with several incidents resulting in a number of yellow flags being shown. As a result of one of those yellow flags, Joel was handed a penalty for failing to respect the yellow flag conditions, resulting in a six place grid penalty for Sunday’s race.
With O’Shea starting from the seventh row and Kelso from the eigth, the team knew it would be a challenging race. Neverthless, both riders made strong starts, with the Brit moving up to 18th and the Australian to 20th.
As the laps went by, both riders continued to make progress, eventually joining the large group fighting for positions inside the top 10. However, with just two laps remaining, and after fighting at the front of that group, Eddie crashed out, ending his chances of a strong finish.
Joel, meanwhile, continued to fight all the way to the chequered flag, crossing the line in 17th position.
“Overall, it was a very difficult weekend in Japan. We didn’t expect it to be like this, but now we focus on the next race and look to come back stronger in Indonesia in just a few day’s time. I’m looking forward to bouncing back. ”
“The DNF today doesn’t represent the race we had. We fought hard to finish inside the top 10 and fell at the final hurdle. No stress, eyes on Indonesia. ”
The team has already made its way to Indonesia, where the second overseas round of the season will take place this weekend.