The Catalan GP opened the first double-header of the season and Fantic Racing Moto2 was fighting for a podium spot with Aron Canet until a few laps to go. Xavi Cardelus reached a new personal best in P16.
At the Circuit of Barcelona-Catalunya, the Fantic Racing Moto2 squad put in a lot of work to find the right set-up that allowed Aron Canet to qualify in fourth place on Saturday, only 0.011 sec off the front row. For Xavi Cardelus it was a special Grand Prix that felt like home for the rider from Andorra.
In Sunday’s race, Canet impressed with his pace. With 7 laps to go, he was running in third place but, unfortunately, crashed out at turn 5 and was unable to finish. It was a disappointing end to a strong showing for the Spaniard. However, the focus is already shifting on to the next round in Mugello, a home GP for Fantic Racing Moto2.
Xavi Cardelus went close to the points as he crossed the finish line in P17 and was promoted to 16th in the revised results after another rider was disqualified from the race. This marks Xavi’s best result of the season so far.
Aron Canet: “I am very disappointed because our pace was great and a podium would have been possible. The good thing is, we will have a new chance next week at the team’s home GP and I am even more motivated now to make up for what we missed out on today. We will be ready to fight at the front again.”
Xavi Cardelus: “I am happy with today’s race, we managed not to have a big drop in the final stages with the tyres. I might have missed a bit of speed at the start but it was important to keep the pace, that was our main goal. We knew it would have been better not to push too much in the beginning as the conditions of the asphalt and the weather made it tricky to be constant. The GP here in Montmeló feels like a home race and is special for me because I have my friends and my family here as well. Next week we will head to Mugello for Fantic Racing’s home GP and we want to keep improving. I would like to thank my whole team, step by step we are getting more and more competitive.”
Roberto Locatelli - Fantic Racing Team Manager:“As you could see, this GP was all about race management. We had chosen the right tyre with the hard compound on the front and Aron was doing exactly what he had to do. He was doing a great job managing the race but we paid dearly as he was just a little wide in that one moment, we are actually talking about very few degrees of angle. Bagnaia crashed at the same corner in Saturday’s MotoGP sprint, even the smallest of mistakes can be costly in these conditions. We are very happy with Aron and we are sure that we will be ready again in Mugello. We were in a good position; Aron had no track limits warning and a podium was within our reach thanks to the professionalism and competitiveness of the whole team but that is just how it is sometimes in racing. On the other hand, Xavi did well as his pace was good in the end even compared to the front guys. He just missed a bit at the start but we keep on building.”
