Scott Redding delivered his best performance in the 2011 Moto2 World Championship today, the Marc VDS Racing rider storming from outside the top 20 to finish seventh in a pulsating Sachsenring race.
Redding produced a scintillating first lap, climbing from 23rd on the grid into the top 15 and he was quickly inside the top ten after just seven laps, joining an exciting group battling for sixth place, headed by reigning World Supersport champion Kenan Sofuoglu.
A clinical pass on Sofuoglu on lap 10 moved Redding into seventh and he wasted no time in attacking Simone Corsi to claim sixth on the next lap.
By the time Redding made it to the front of the pack, Yonny Hernandez was more than three seconds clear in fifth. A tremendous series of consistently fast laps saw Redding cut the gap to two seconds, but he was unable to continue the chase when he encountered a rear grip problem having pushed so hard to fight his way into the top ten in the early stages.
Redding’s joy was in stark contrast to luckless teammate Mika Kallio, who didn’t even make it to the grid for the 29-lap encounter. Kallio’s Suter MMXI suffered a fuel pressure problem in the pre-race warm-up session, so as a precaution his Marc VDS Racing crew changed several parts to alleviate the issue in time for the race.
But Kallio failed to complete the sighting lap when his bike stopped again, his Marc VDS Racing crew working frantically to rectify the problem in time for him to start the warm-up lap from pitlane. But he encountered a further problem and had to stop. The Marc VDS Racing Team is currently conducting a detailed analysis of Kallio’s bike to diagnose the cause of his retirement.
Scott Redding
“That was much more like it and it feels great to finish a weekend on a high after a few poor results. After the last race I knew I could make a lot of overtakes early on and that’s exactly what I did. I managed to dodge the chaos at the first corner and just got my head down and attacked as hard as I could. It didn’t take me long to get into the top six and it was really good fun. In the last few races I’ve usually gone backwards, so to be moving forward and making a lot of passes was great for my confidence. When I got into sixth I thought I could chase down Hernandez for fifth but I’d pushed so hard in the early laps that I’d worn the rear tyre a bit too much. When Krummenacher came by I knew he had a good pace and I thought he might drag me forward, but his bike had unbelievable traction and I couldn’t do anything. Each time I tried to accelerate I was spinning. I had a good battle for seventh with Corsi at the end and managed to hold him off, which was satisfying because he is a hard rider and takes no prisoners.”
Mika Kallio
“There is not much I can say other than today is instantly forgettable and I am very upset. The Marc VDS Racing Team has put in a tremendous amount of work this weekend and after qualifying on the third row at one of my favourite tracks, we were confident of achieving a very strong result. So to not even start the race is incredibly hard to take. We are trying to learn what caused the problem but all I can do is stay motivated, train hard in the summer break and try and bounce back with a strong result in Brno.”
Michael Bartholemy: Team Manager
“Scott did a fantastic job today and that was probably the best ride he’s produced all season. He’s had a better result, but to come from where he started on the grid to be fighting for sixth was a great performance. In the first eight laps he was as fast as the riders at the front despite being in heavy traffic. So I think that proved that with a better qualifying yesterday he could have been challenging for a podium today. Scott though demonstrated what he can do today and we have known all year that he’s capable of delivering a race like that. It gives him a lot of confidence now to go into the summer break and return stronger in Brno. We have to investigate deeper what happened to Mika because at the moment we aren’t sure why his bike stopped. After the warm-up when he had the fuel pressure problem, we took the bike apart to find a solution and we changed everything you can change that might have caused the problem. The bike started for the sighting lap but it stopped again at the last corner. We changed a fuse but it stopped again on the warm-up lap. It is a big shame for him because he’d qualified very well and he was optimistic of a strong race.”
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