Red Bull Grand Prix of the Americas: P10 Barry, Zonta DNF

Barry Baltus (P10):
“It was quite a particular weekend. We started Friday on the wrong foot and I can now say that I slept very badly on Friday night. Fortunately, we recovered well on Saturday and we had a good race today. The race was definitely not easy, especially the last five laps, which were very tough and difficult to manage. I was riding alone and wanted to finish at all costs. Tenth place is where I want to be every practice, every qualifying session and in every race. We managed it today and I am very happy with that. Thanks to the guys in the team, thanks to Jarno and thanks to my manager.”

 

 

Zonta van den Goorbergh (DNF):
“A frustrating day, that’s all I say about of it. We worked all weekend on fine-tuning the launch control to make my start even better. I think we succeeded in doing so because my start of the race was not bad at all. Immediately after the start, it was, as predicted, chaos in the first corner and I had to swerve. I lost a few places there, but I think I was still pretty good. A little later I saw someone in front of me making a mistake, so there was already an incident in front of me. I then braked for the corner and someone rode right up behind me, causing me to crash. I then got run over by another rider, but luckily I got away with it. Frustrating, especially after all the hard work over the last few days here. If you look at how we started on Friday – which was just bad – and how we managed to make such a step forward on Saturday, it is not so bad at all. Twenty-second in qualifying, a twentieth lap time in the warm-up on Sunday morning and then to be knocked off at the start of the race is very, very disappointing. Unfortunately I can’t change it, this is just part of it. On to Portimão.”

 

 

Jarno Janssen, RW Racing GP teammanager:
“First of all we are of course very happy with Barry’s tenth place. Very impressive how he has built up this weekend after his injury but also after a difficult first day here. In the race Barry was in a group fighting for seventh place. At one point the risk was too big for him, it was going a bit too fast for him and he decided to play safe, with tenth place as his reward. That was just good, very happy with it. As for Zonta, of course it’s a shame and a pity that he got knocked off right at the start. Aldeguer just wanted too much and rammed Zonta from behind with the result that it was the end of the race. But despite this he learned a lot this weekend and did a great job during the first four Grand Prix weekends outside Europe, despite two zero scores. It’s just amazing how he has held up, how much progress he has made and how he has put himself in the spotlight. We are now going back to Europe, and I am convinced that we will see some great things from our young countryman.”