2011 MotoGP World Championship Series round16, IVECO AUSTRALIAN GRAND PRIX / Race report
Only 3 to go, the Grand Prix went to Australia.
It was relatively warm until Saturday morning, but it changed completely just before the start of qualifying practice sessions. It started raining just after all Moto2 riders went out to the track for qualifying. They all came back to their pits and waited for the weather to improve. That gave only 25min to everyone to battle to get their positions in the starting grid. Riders were swapping their positions in that short period of time and Yuki Takahashi timed 1’34.689 to secure his fifth front-row start with 3rd fastest time in the session.
Other MD600 riders: Michele Pirro 12th, Ricard Cardus 27th and Mashel Al Naimi 37th.
The temperature dropped on Sunday morning. By the time the Moto2 race started, it went up only to 16 degree air and 32 degree ground. All MD600 riders completed the opening lap safely, Takahashi 8th, Pirro 12th, Cardus 18th and Al Naimi 32 respectively.
Takahashi came to 14th position at one stage but regained later to finish the race in 10th. His teammate was battling within and out of point-getting position and finished in 14th with 2 points. Cardus just missed a point, finishing in 16th and Al Naimi 28th.
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MD600 Qualifying Practice result
-- 3rd
TEAM / Gresini Racing Moto2
RIDER / No.72 Yuki TAKAHASHI
TIME / 1'34.689
--12th
TEAM / Gresini Racing Moto2
RIDER / No.51 Michele PIRRO
TIME / 1'35.281
--27th
TEAM / QMMF Racing Team
RIDER / No.88 Ricard CARDUS
TIME / 1'36.695
--37th
TEAM / QMMF Racing Team
RIDER / No.95 Mashel AL NAIMI
TIME / 1'39.658
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MD600 Race result:
--10th
TEAM / Gresini Racing Moto2
RIDER / No.72 Yuki TAKAHASHI
--14th
TEAM / Gresini Racing Moto2
RIDER / No.51 Michele PIRRO
--17th
TEAM / QMMF Racing Team
RIDER / No.88 Ricard CARDUS
--28th
TEAM / QMMF Racing Team
RIDER / No.95 Mashel AL NAIMI
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World Championship Classification
----
CONSTRUCTOR CHAMPIONSHIP
MORIWAKI MD600 RANKING / 6th / 104point
---
RIDER POINT RANKING
-- 8th / No.72 Yuki TAKAHASHI / 77point
-- 17th / No.51 Michele PIRRO / 50point
-- 30th / No.88 Ricard CARDUS / 2point
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Event sights
Pits
“POLIZIA” on Michele’s helmet???
Apparently he was appointed in athletes supporting program by Italian police.
Gresini is giving traditional technique, holes on upper cowling, to fight against Philip Island wind.
The Moto2 goes to Malaysia for its penultimate round of the season, on October 23.
Thank you for your continuous support to MORIWAKI riders!!
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MotoGP official website
http://www.motogp.com
http://www.motogp.com/en/Moto2
