Repsol rider misses out on podium by 0.009s in close race. Maria Herrera claims best result of the season with eleventh. Fabio Quartararo withdraws from race after warm-up.
Just 9 thousandths of a second separated Jorge Navarro from his third consecutive podium, as the Repsol rider narrowly missed out in Australia. He stayed in the leading group throughout the race, showing patience and keeping away from incidents. The leading group was whittled down from sixteen riders during the first half of the race to six eventually battling for victory.
Binder, Oliveira, Fenati, Kornfeil, Vazquez and Navarro contested a final lap with continuous overtaking, and only Oliveira was able to carve out a small advantage which enabled him to ride smooth lines in the lead. Navarro battled for one of the two remaining podium places with Vazquez and Binder, missing out on a third rostrum in a row by just 9 thousandths of a second. After finishing fourth, Navarro continues in eighth place overall.
Fabio Quartararo decided at the end of warm up this morning not to take the start, instead flying to Barcelona to continue with the recovery of his right ankle.
Maria Herrera had a great performance in the second group in the race. At the start of the race, the Repsol rider slotted into eighth and was on the tail of the fastest riders in the class. She finally finished eleventh ‒a valuable result at a difficult track that she visited for the first time this weekend.
After the sixteenth round of the 2015 season, the World Championship now heads to Sepang, where the Malaysian Grand Prix takes place next weekend.
Fabio Quartararo
not classified
“This morning in the warm up I did not felt very comfortable riding, and I decided to stop before the end of the session because my foot had swollen up and I felt pain. We went to the Clinica Mobile at the circuit and the team decided it was best not to participate in the race today, in order to continue my recovery.”
Jorge Navarro
4th, at0,170sec
“It was a thrilling race. At first the group was very large, as I knew it would be, and thanks to the slipstreams we saw riders who are not always at the front up in contention –which led to many crashes. In that regard I was lucky, because I did not get involved in any incidents. I let the laps go by, because I knew it was important to save my tyres for the end. It’s a shame that, three laps from the end, I ran wide and lost a second to the group, but later I was able them to reach again. However, by then I had lost a good position to fight for victory and was the last in that pack. I was unable to keep climbing positions until the end, but I’m happy with the work we have done. This is part of the learning process for this year.”
María Herrera
11th,at7.573sec
“It was a difficult race, with so many slipstreams. I rode pretty well and remained in the points. At a certain point we began to continuously overtake one another, and I tried to calm myself down. I knew it would be a long race and it proved to be so, because many riders crashed out. During the race I fought with experienced riders in the World Championship, such as Antonelli and Bastianini, and I am very happy because we have made a small change in between the warm up and the race that worked very well. I finished in the group competing for seventh and, although another rider got in my way on the home straight and I could not finish higher up, I’m very happy.”
