San Marino, 15 Sept 2013: On a day when Lorenzo was in unbeatable form for Yamaha Factory Racing, Indian outfit Mahindra’s riders Miguel Oliveira and Efrén Vázquez finished seventh and 12th in Sunday’s San Marino and Rimini Riviera Grand Prix – both claiming more valuable championship points, but both disappointed to be denied better results by issues that spiked their guns.
Meanwhile, Yamaha Factory Racing said on its site about the victory on Sunday : “Yamaha Factory Racing’s Jorge Lorenzo delivered a masterful performance today to win the San Marino Grand Prix in stunning form. The victory, his sixth successive Italian Grand Prix win, was delivered after a 28 lap race of inch perfect riding from t
Rossi of Yamaha congratulates winner Lorenzo (right) on Sunday. Photo courtesy Yamaha Factory Racing.
he reigning world champion.
“Starting from second on the grid, Lorenzo out dragged championship rival and pole sitter Marc Marquez to the first corner, taking the hole shot into turn one. He proved immediately impossible to follow, opening up a gap of just over a second on the first lap and keeping the pressure up as the race wound on. He was quick to build a comfortable gap to the chasing pack that was unbroken to the line, allowing him to claim his fifth Grand Prix win of the season,” the Yamaha site added.
A Mahindra press release said: Oliveira (18, from Portugal) was confident of a strong top five result as he held his place in a fierce group disputing fourth, holding his final attack in reserve for the closing stages of the 23-lap race round the 4.226-km Misano World Circuit Marco Simoncelli. But even before the halfway stage he was stricken with painful arm-pump problems that made it an ordeal even to finish.
Even so, he fought to the end, finishing seventh in a tight group of five riders. Although Luis Salom had edged away for fourth by just over half a second, fifth to eighth places were covered by six tenths.
Spanish star Efrén Vázquez (27) had a harder job, after qualifying on the fifth row of the grid. He too was battling for inches in a big gang of Moto3™ riders, but a gear-shifting error meant he was also not able to fight to his maximum.
The Mahindra MGP3O is in its first racing season, after being designed and developed in record time over the winter, and the 250cc single-cylinder four-stroke machine’s instant speed and reliability made it a serious contender even in first prototype form. Today’s result brings the only Indian marque in international motorcycle racing closer still to second overall in the Constructor Championship, only 14 points away from the well-established Kalex-KTM.
It was the first outing also for customer Mahindra MGP3O machines, after Ambrogio Racing switched to Mahindra for this race. Brad Binder finished 18th, just out of the points, with team-mate Luca Amato 24th, one place ahead of Mahindra wild card Andrea Locatelli.
Today’s race was won by KTM rider Alex Rins, his fourth in the 12-race-old season. The next round is at Aragon in Spain in two weeks.
MIGUEL OLIVEIRA – seventh place
“I am quite disappointed. The bike was good, but my race was a real struggle. I suffered from arm-pump, with still 15 laps to go. The same thing happened to me last year at this track, but never anywhere else. At the start I could do a great lap time, and I was trying not to lose the second group fighting for third. One rider got away, but Salom in front was not pushing hard. I was stuck behind him for some laps, but when my arm stiffened I couldn’t defend myself or attack. If not for that, we should have finished fourth.”
EFRÉN VÁZQUEZ – 12th place
“That was the hardest race of the season for me, and it is a shame because the Mahindra and I had the pace for a better result, and to finish at least at the front of my group and in the top ten. What made it impossible was I made some mistakes shifting, and sometimes I arrived at a corner in the wrong gear, which was a bit dangerous. I tried my best, but I think we deserved better. It was really difficult to finish where we did.”
MUFADDAL CHOONIA – CEO, Mahindra Racing
“To be frank we are feeling slightly disappointed. Our real position is top five in every race. The difference between fourth and eighth was very small, nothing to choose. We lost two positions on the last two laps. Miguel developed a pain in his forearm as happened to him last year on this track, so he couldn’t push that last step. Now we look forward to the next race in Aragon.”
About Mahindra Racing
Mahindra Racing became the first Indian team to participate in the FIM MotoGP™ World Motorcycle Racing Championship in 2011 and the Italian National Motorcycle Racing Championship (CIV) in 2012.
Racing in the Moto3™ class in MotoGP, Mahindra Racing entered the 2013 season with its own new 4-stroke, single-cylinder, 250cc motorcycle: the Mahindra MGP3O, developed with experienced Swiss firm Suter Racing Technology AG. Experienced Spanish rider Efrén Vázquez (27, from Bilbao) is teamed with exciting Portuguese teenager Miguel Oliveira (18, from Pragal near Lisbon). The team has been recording consistent Top 5 finishes and has already achieved a pole position and two circuit lap records in the first 8 rounds of the World Championship.
At the opening round in Qatar, the Mahindra duo had a dream debut with a double Top 10 result for the only Indian team in Grand Prix motorcycle racing. In the Catalunya round, Vázquez crossed the line in fifth and Oliveira was sixth; this double Top 6 being the best result for Mahindra Racing so far, as a pair. Riding to perfection at the Assen Round, Oliveira was just inches from scoring the team’s historic first podium, when he crossed the line in fourth place just 0.096 seconds from third, and 0.378 behind the leader. In Sachsenring, the team scored another double top six finish. The team continues to be in the Top 3 in the Constructor’s rankings.
In the 2012 CIV season, Mahindra Racing competed in the 125 GP Class and became the first team from India to win an international motorsport event, eventually recording six victories from eight races and securing the Constructors’ Title. In the 2013 CIV season, the team has entered the Moto3 (250cc – 4 stroke) class with talented riders Andrea Locatelli (16, from Alzano Lombardo) and Michael Rinaldi (17, Rimini, Emilia-Romagna). The Mahindra riders have already achieved 7 podium finishes in 8 Rounds so far in this season, with the best results being the double podiums with 1st and 2nd finishes at Round 5 in Misano and Round 7 in Imola. Mahindra Racing currently leads the Constructor’s standings with a wide margin.
Mahindra’s bold decision to take on the world’s best at the highest level of motorcycle racing won the team prestigious awards such as the ‘ZigWheels Motorsport Award of the Year, 2012’, and the NDTV Car and Bike Awards ‘Mobil 1 Motorsport Award of the Year, 2012’.
