Van den Goorbergh finishes up and down weekend at Jerez with points, DNF for Baltus
RW-Idrofoglia Racing GP finished the race weekend at the Circuito de Jerez – Ángel Nieto with world championship points. In a challenging race Zonta van den Goorbergh eventually crossed the finish line in 13th place after having to come back from 20th position. Barry Baltus also looked to be on his way to points but crashed out on lap seven.
The Spanish Grand Prix was a weekend of highs and lows for RW-Idrofoglia Racing GP. On Friday, both riders were in the top 14 which allowed them – due to the rainy conditions on Saturday morning – to go straight through to Q2. With a thirteenth and eighteenth place on the grid, world championship points were the goal and top ten results were a possibility.
Zonta van den Goorbergh made a good start and was riding in fourteenth place on the opening lap just behind teammate Barry Baltus. On the second lap, the Dutchman was hit by another rider, putting him off track and losing a lot of ground. When returning to the track there followed contact with another rider which would result in Van den Goorbergh receiving a Long Lap penalty.
After Baltus lost a number of positions and his race came to an end on lap seven due to a crash, Van den Goorbergh made strides forward again and fought his way back into the points’ positions from 20th place. In the end, the 18-year-old rider finished 13th, scoring three points for RW-Idrofoglia Racing GP.
Zonta van den Goorbergh – P13: “I am reasonably satisfied with today’s race but there was definitely more possibile. I was hit hard in the early stages of the race by another rider which put me off track, when I returned to the track I was hit again and I received a Long Lap penalty for that. I don’t agree with that and it threw quite a spanner in the works for the rest of the race. I fell back to P20 but didn’t give up and then managed to make up another ten positions.
With thirteenth place we still managed to score some points and we can say that the good feeling is back. Now we will try some things in the test on Tuesday to see if we can make another step. I want to thank the team for their work this weekend, especially after yesterday they prepared the bike perfectly again so we could make it a good race today.”
Barry Baltus – DNF: “I didn’t expect to have a day like this but it is what it is. I had a little problem with the bike early on in the race but I tried to manage it. In the end I crashes and therefore I am not happy about today. In the test on Tuesday we will have some new parts to try so we’ll have to see if that improves our feeling. I am looking forward to the next GP in Le Mans, let’s see what we can do there.”
Jarno Janssen – RW-Idrofoglia Racing GP team manager: “It was quite a tough weekend for us. We have been fast and shown that we can be competitive but the conditions were very unpredictable. Yesterday the track conditions were very difficult and it was actually the same today. Unfortunately Barry crashed early in the race, which was disappointing because he had a very good race pace and a top eight position was a possibility.
Zonta had some bad luck in the race and also got a debatable Long Lap penalty. You have to take that loss and then he came back strong and still managed to finish in a nice thirteenth place. We scored points again and that is something we have to build on. Overall, we have made a big step up from last year. Of course, we are never 100% satisfied and I think we have to and can perform better, as a team together with our riders.
We will stay in Jerez to test some new parts on Tuesday. Hopefully we can take a step forward with these and then we are already looking forward to the next Grand Prix in Le Mans.”
After a one-day test at the Circuito de Jerez – Ángel Nieto on this Tuesday, RW-Idrofoglia Racing GP will be back in action at the French Grand Prix at the Bugatti Circuit in Le Mans on the weekend of 10-12 May.