Motegi: QMMF Racing Team riders Julian Simon and Xavier Simeon fought their way into the Top Ten and celebrated a happy-end to the Grand Prix of Japan yesterday.
Starting from 16th and 17th places on the grid, both riders recovered positions steadily, thanks to a special bike set-up for the Twin Ring Motegi, a strong and consistent race pace and also due to the crashes of some rivals within the front group of riders.
In the end, Simon finished eighth and Simeon tenth place, a strong team result that boosts the confidence of riders and technicians ahead of the race on the ultra-fast Phillip Island circuit in Australia next weekend.
Commenting on his achievement, Julian Simon said, “I am happy with our achievement in the race and also with our performance over the whole weekend. It’s very positive to end the race in the Top Ten, with an eighth place, and I want to thank and congratulate my team that worked very well and gave me a very good bike.”
“We changed the set-up for this track, which helped me a lot and I noted this morning in the warm-up that we were competitive. Only at the beginning of the race, in the first few laps, I couldn’t quite match the pace of this morning, but for the remainder of the race we were fast and consistent. I look forward to the next race next weekend in Australia,” he added.
Xavier Simeon said; “We had a good end of the weekend. We struggled at the beginning of this Grand Prix, but we managed to improve on Saturday and today in the race, we improved again, even though I didn’t quite have the pace to fight for the Top Ten.”
“We have to admit that we were a little bit lucky, because there were a number of crashes ahead of us and we were able to take advantage. I tried to be very consistent in the race and I did good lap times, but I couldn’t go faster than I did.
