Gonzalez Earns Well-Deserved Championship Points at COTA

10-04-2022

Gonzalez Earns Well-Deserved Championship Points at COTA

The Circuit of The Americas took no prisoners today. The Moto2 race counted multiple crashers, but rookie Manuel Gonzalez skilfully avoided all incidents. He rode from P23 on the grid to a solid 13th place after a tough Grand Prix of The Americas weekend.

Yamaha VR46 Master Camp Team‘s Manuel Gonzalez once again showed his talent in today‘s Grand Prix of The Americas Moto2 race. The Circuit of The Americas is physically extremely demanding and lured many riders into making mistakes, but the rookie was not one of them. With great maturity, focus, and determination he took a 13th place finish, his second consecutive championship points earning result in his and the team‘s debut season.

Gonzalez was pushed wide in the tight first corner, but still managed to hold on to his 23rd-place starting position. Soon the Spaniard started to gain momentum. Skilfully navigating his way through the chaotic opening sectors that had multiple riders running wide or crashing out, the Spaniard completed the first lap in 17th place.

He ultimately settled in 18th as he started to get into a steady rhythm and successfully defended his position from veteran riders behind him. With two riders crashing out ahead of him, the Yamaha VR46 Master Camp Team youngster moved up to 16th position. Tantalisingly close to scoring championship points again, Gonzalez focused on his mission to ride a steady race. The strategy worked: by lap 8 he was in 15th place and in the points.

At that time Manugass was on a roll. With brilliant overtakes on Filip Salac and Romano Fenati on lap 12 and 13, he moved up to 13th. Feeling ambitious, the number-18 rider then fixed his eyes on Albert Arenas but was unable to fully bridge the gap. Despite losing a position to Marcos Ramirez on the last lap, a late crasher saw Gonzalez still take the chequered flag in 13th place. It is his and the team‘s best result so far in the Moto2 World Championship and all the more impressive after a challenging Americas GP weekend.

Today‘s results put Gonzalez in 20th place in the championship standings with 5 points in total. The Yamaha VR46 Master Camp Team features on the score board in 14th place, also with 5 points.

The team will be back in action in two weeks‘ time at the Autódromo Internacional do Algarve for the Grande Prémio Tissot de Portugal.

Gelete Nieto

Sports Director

"I‘m very happy for Manu and the team‘s result. COTA is difficult, the weather conditions on the track were not the best. It was very windy, but in the end we finished P13 with 3 points. Manu gained a lot of experience riding here. For half the race he followed Arenas, an expert rider who was 5th on the grid. It means that we are working well. This good result gives the rider and the team even more motivation for the upcoming European adventures."

Manuel Gonzales - P13

Yamaha VR46 Master Camp Team

"I‘m pretty happy about how I finished the race. We started the day not in the best mood because yesterday has been difficult, but during Warm Up we tried a change on the bike and I adapted my riding style. We were able to improve something more for the race and I felt better, though not yet at our top level. I started with some bad luck because I almost crashed in the first corner and in the last sector, but then lap by lap I was trying to stay calm and overtake. So, the race went pretty well. We'll continue our work and our improvements at the upcoming European race. I‘m looking forward to going there because I know the circuit, and I‘m sure we can do even better. I would like to thank the team for their work!"

Yamaha VR46 Master Camp Team - 2022 Americas GP Sunday