Four of the five riders bagged point scoring finishes in a MotorLand double-header
British Talent Team’s Max Cook put on a gritty performance in Round 6 of the FIM Moto3™ Junior World Championship to back-up yesterday’s career-best fifth place with a brace of eleventh place finishes just a month after breaking his pelvis.
The Swindonian once again got great launches from the second row of the grid and was able to stay with the leading group for the opening part of both races. Eventually, though, the 17-year-old drifted off of the back of the fight for victory as the pain worsened. In race one he crossed the line just five seconds adrift of the eventual race winner to add five further points to his Championship tally.
Then in race two, the Brit was able to do exactly same despite another full race distance just hours after the last, which understandably posed a real challenge. Heading into the final round of the year in Valencia, he now sits eleventh in the FIM Moto3™ JWC standings with 39 points to his name.
In race one, Asia Talent Team’s Takuma Matsuyama was once again able to fight his way through from the eighth row of the grid to take away some valuable points. The Japanese rider this time finishing fourteenth after a race long battle with five other riders.
In race two, ‘Super’ Mario Aji left his best until last. The Indonesian put behind him his lap one, turn one disappointment of race one, when he was unfortunately caught up in another rider’s incident, to take his best result of the weekend. From 26th on the grid, the Astra Honda Racing Team man rode brilliantly to come through and finish twelfth.
He finished at the front of a seven-rider scrap, less than a tenth clear of British Talent Team’s Scott Ogden in thirteenth, who collected his first points of the weekend. With AP Honda’s Tatchakorn Buasri the unlucky man to miss out on some points, coming across the line in eighteenth and only three tenths of a second adrift of fifteenth.
In the Championship, Matsuyama and Ogden both now have 20 points heading to the final three races of the year in Valencia, with Aji joining Buasri on four after today’s result.
