FENATI SEVENTH, BAGNAIA (13TH) BACK TO SCORE POINTS

Milan, October 12, 2014. Good race for the Sky Racing Team VR46 at the Motul Grand Prix of Japan with both riders bagging points on the Motegi circuit, after a hard-fought race, with many crashes and a tight fight in front.

Romano Fenati gets ahead of all Italian riders with a seventh-place finish, thanks to his unflagging determination and the great team work: he actually pulled back 10 positions. Too far from the first six – with a gap of about 5 seconds – the group led by the number 5 carried out a somehow “parallel competition”.

Good results for Francesco Bagnaia as well back to scoring points after being left empty-handed for 9 races, thanks to a great start and a good race pulled off with determination and will to reverse the trend.

Sky-VR46 sports management: “We are happy as Romano pulled off a good race. He got away from seventeenth spot and he finished seventh. Having pulled back ten positions was an important result, we had a good race pace, very close to that of the leading pack and the riders who stepped on the podium. If we had got away much ahead in the starting grid, we could have fought with them and competed for victory. We are also happy with Pecco’s performance as after nine zero-point races he finally earned a thirteenth place. Good start for him, he really enjoyed himself. Now we look forward to the next races, perhaps this very Japanese Grand Prix will serve as a boost to do even better in the last three rounds of the World Championship”.

ROMANO FENATI (in live exclusive to the microphones of Sky Sport MotoGP HD): “We did wrong in qualifying, so if we had managed to start much ahead, it would have certainly been easier. In the race I lost a lot of acceleration, I could not push as hard as I wanted because the bike rear was sliding a bit. What I was able to make up for when letting off the throttle was not enough to overtake, so I had to stay lucid and be lucky while getting out not to let the bike slide too much and accelerate better to then overtake when shutting down the throttle. Then, when I was running alone, I was half a second stronger, but when the others went in front we lost a bit in the classic brawls. I’m happy because the team worked very well, we have been doing a nice job since Friday. Today, in fact, the bike was quite right so as to join the leading pack and keep a good pace. We’ll try it again in Australia”.

FRANCESCO BAGNAIA: “I’m not very satisfied with the result because earlier this year I was able to do better. However, after 9 zero-point races in a row is nice to be able to bag some points at the end of a race and is a good omen for next GPs. We worked well all weekend  and will continue to do so until the end”.