Gonzalez Shows Superb Sunday Race Pace at the Sachsenring

19-06-2022

Gonzalez Shows Superb Sunday Race Pace at the Sachsenring

Yamaha VR46 Master Camp Team‘s Manuel Gonzalez was not afraid to flex his muscles around prominent Moto2 riders today at the Motorrad Grand Prix Deutschland. Starting from P17, he worked himself up to P12 across the finish line. Keminth Kubo‘s difficulties at the Sachsenring continued. Whilst he was riding a steady race, a crash later on in Turn 1 ended his challenge prematurely.

Yamaha VR46 Master Camp Team‘s Manuel Gonzalez showed some Sunday magic at the Motorrad Grand Prix Deutschland, riding from P17 to P12 across the finish line.

Gonzalez didn‘t have the start he had hoped for from P17 on the grid. He was making his bike as wide as he could in the busy mid pack to settle in 19th place as they went across the start-finish line for the first time. Not long after, he started his upwards trajectory in the standings. By lap 9, he was in 15th place and in the points.

The Spaniard felt encouraged. Completely in the moment, he overtook Cameron Beaubier and Celestino Vietti. Jake Dixon and Joe Roberts were next, moving the rookie up to 11th. With a big gap to the riders inside the top 10, he concentrated on defending his position. Though he ultimately lost a place to Dixon in the final moments, he was satisfied to wrap up a difficult weekend in 12th, bringing home 4 valuable championship points.

Kubo defended his P28 starting position throughout the first lap. By lap 2, he had an over 1s gap to the rider in front of him and decided he needed to push harder. He got into a rhythm and focused on getting to the front of the group battling for 22nd place at the time.

With various riders retiring from the race and the Thai rider overtaking Alessandro Zaccone, he got up to 21st place. The Yamaha VR46 Master Camp man was reeling in Zonta van den Goorbergh and came close to overtaking, but a crash in Turn 1 on lap 21 ended his run.

Today‘s results see Gonzalez remain in 17th place in the championship standings with 32 points. Keminth Kubo stays in 28th place with 4 points. The Yamaha VR46 Master Camp Team climbs up a spot to 11th on the score board, with 45 points.

The team will be back in action next week at the TT Assen in the Netherlands, held from 24-26 June.

Gelete Nieto

Sports Director

"It was a very important race today for Manu. After a difficult Warm Up, we decided to change the set-up of the bike, thus changing the geometry of the bike to improve the rear grip and to improve braking. During the first lap, Manu lost two positions but immediately began to pass riders, riding as well as the front riders. Today he finished twelfth, but I am sure that mentally this race has charged him a lot. Kubo's race went better than we expected. During training he suffered from not knowing the track. He did the last two sections of the circuit quite well, but the first two sections cost him a little more. Kubo's race wasn't bad until he made a mistake and crashed at Turn 1. We have to keep pushing."

Manuel Gonzalez - P12 (+18.661s)

Yamaha VR46 Master Camp Team

"I am very happy how this race went. I had a difficult first lap with some riders going slow in front of me, and I lost two positions. From there I started to recover really fast, overtaking 8 riders with a fast pace and controlling the limit of the bike. I look forward to Assen because we are going in the right direction race by race, and it is a track that I like a lot."

Keminth Kubo - DNF

Yamaha VR46 Master Camp Team

"I had a good feeling with the bike during the race. At the start, I gained some positions and tried to stay with the group. I was riding well, I had confidence, actually more than I expected, and I could stay with the other riders. My lap times were good, but 7 laps before the end I made a mistake and I crashed. I‘m ok, but I‘m very sorry for the team. That‘s not the return I wanted, but it‘s part of the game."

Yamaha VR46 Master Camp Team - 2022 - German GP - Sunday