On a near perfect summer’s day with air temperature of 23 degrees, LCR Honda MotoGP Team racer Toni Elias finished the 32 lap Californian round in 13th position despite his usual front end issues. His team mate Ben Bostrom had a good start from the last spot on the grid, dropping his lap time by one second after the first lap.
Unfortunately, the American SBK rider went wide into the gravel twice and preferred to enter the garage trying not to crash his RCV no. 23. Now the MotoGP Championship has a break and premier class riders will be back on track on the 14th of August for the Czech Republic GP in Brno.
Toni Elias:
“In the morning warm up, we changed the rear set up of the bike and it felt immediately better. As always, I had a good start but on this track you get stuck if you start from the last row, so I pushed but in the first corner I went a bit wide. I was 12th when I suddenly lost the front running off into the gravel. I rejoined the race but for the rest of the race I felt like I was lapping on a frozen surface. We finished in 13th position but the situation is still very tough for us”.
Ben Bostrom:
“I had a good start and immediately felt very comfortable on the bike. I improved my lap time by a second over the practice time, so I was very optimistic to see that so early in the race. Because I was riding so much faster, I started to feel uncomfortable in the first corner when I had to shift down because my foot hit the ground and after few laps I made a mistake running off the track into the gravel. It took me 30 seconds to rejoin the race but I wanted to continue, but then on the next lap I had the same problem. So I decided to enter the pits even if the bike was fantastic. Honestly, I was thinking about my next race and didn’t want to crash this bike. Once again, I want to thank MJM, Lucio and all the guys here: it was an incredible experience for me!”
LCR Honda press release.
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