Lecuona and Mulhauser did not finish in Japan
We could feel this coming after the first two days of practice and qualifying: the Japanese Moto2 Grand Prix victory was there to grab for one of the two men who dominated each session, the reigning champion and the current championship leader Johann Zarco from France and Thomas Lüthi (Garage Plus Interwetten), who impressed every observer... and his rivals not only by his fastest lap but also his consistency. After an excellent start from the middle of the front row, Lüthi immediately got into the lead and did not let go until the end; after a long battle with young Italian Franco Morbidelli, he resisted Zarco's pressure to win for the third time this season and thirteenth time in his career. At the same time, he regained the provisional third position in the overall championship classification with three races remaining. Lüthi is now 43 points behind the championship leader with 75 points still up for grab. The race unfortunately ended too soon for Robin Mulhauser and Iker Lecuona, the two carXpert Interwetten riders, who crashed early in the race, although the Spaniard was able to re-join before he had to pit in with 9 laps to go. Just after the podium ceremony, where he accompanied the winner of the day, Frédéric Corminboeuf, the boss of CGBM Evolution, the company that aligns the two Swiss teams on the Moto2 grid, was delighted: "Tom had an incredible weekend, he was strong in each session, he was relaxed, confident and 100% concentrated on his job that he managed in a superb style. This is the fruit of all the hard work the team has done and our objective is to continue in this way going into the final three rounds of the season: we want stay on top."
They said...
Iker Lecuona (carXpert Interwetten, DNF): "The Japanese Grand Prix is over. This weekend was very difficult and the end bittersweet. I knew that I would be seriously penalised by being so far back on the grid. So my objective was clear: to try to get into a good group as quickly as possible to find the right pace. That's what I managed to do; I was in 21st position when I lost the front. I am really sorry to the whole team."
Robin Mulhauser (carXpert Interwetten, DNF): "I got pushed quite a bit at the start, I felt comfortable and was in a group that was eventually fighting for the fifteenth position when, on the second lap in a corner where I was very close to Remy Gardner, he experienced a problem. He shut off and I was behind him. The impact was serious, I am sore but nothing serious. I would like to congratulate to my team mate Tom Lüthi: what he did this weekend is amazing."
