Good result on black day in Mugello

What a difficult weekend it was this time in Mugello, with feelings going in all directions. After yesterday’s horrific crash during Moto3 practice, today the sad news came out that young Swiss rider Jason Dupasquier died from injuries sustained in the crash.

And then there is a Moto2 race with a good result for the NTS RW Racing team. Both drivers of the team scored their best places of the year. Barry Baltus finished 17^e and Hafizh Syahrin achieved 7 World Cup points with a nice ninth place at the finish.

Hafizh was of course happy but also reflected on the death of his fellow Moto3 rider: “This top 10 finish makes me happy….but the death of Jason hurts because we are all one big family in the MotoGP world. I dedicate this P9 to him. This is a very sad moment for our sport.”

When he and Jarno Janssen look at today’s performance, they both see that today was a nice step forward. “Certainly if you consider that we have extra problems here due to the difference in speed with the other machines, it is good what we have been able to achieve here with the NTS. Compliments to the team and to Hafizh because a P9 makes us proud”. The latter is already looking ahead to his 2^e home race in Barcelona. “With the confidence that we will gain extra here again, we are all very positive about the next races and therefore leave in good spirits for the GP of Catalunya.

Barry Baltus saw that today went a lot better than during training. “We did better today, it certainly wasn’t bad. The second half of the race I battled with last year’s Moto3 World Champion and I finished just two places off the points so that’s not bad.” After the race, Barry heard the terrible news of Jason Dupasquier’s passing: “Obviously it touches me because I raced with Jason in different classes for three years. I wish his family a lot of strength in these difficult days.”

The next race is already scheduled for next week, which is the race in Barcelona.