Lonely race for Bendsneyder

The Andalusian Grand Prix was a lonely race for Bo Bendsneyder. Not only because he was the only rider of NTS RW Racing GP, after Jesko Raffin had to sign out with signs of overheating. The race itself was also a somewhat lonely affair for Bendsneyder, who crossed the finish line in nineteenth.

The heat in Jerez once again was cruel to both man and machine. At the end of the warm-up, Jesko Raffin suffered from overheating. On the advice of the medical staff, NTS RW Racing GP therefore decided not to let the Swiss start. “Jerez in pretty harsh on us, but safety and health are paramount,” said NTS RW Racing GP team manager Jarno Janssen.
Bo Bendsneyder was thus the only rider on the grid, in 24th place. It was clear that a good result would be difficult in the heat – the track temperature had already risen to 53 degrees Celsius at the start of the Moto2 race. Staying upright was the first goal, knowing that crashing on that hot asphalt happens easily, as happened to Bendsneyder last week. That also turned out to be the case: nine riders did not reach the finish line of the Moto2 race. Partly thanks to those many crashes, Bendsneyder was able to slowly but surely climb to nineteenth place.

Bo Bendsneyder: “Under these warm conditions we never looked good. So we knew beforehand that it would be difficult, but I gave everything. Never giving up is the most important thing in these hard times. We will continue to fight and hope that more will be in store in Brno in two weeks.”

Race results:

Pos Rider Team Time / Gap
1 Enea BASTIANINI Italtrans Racing Team 39’23.922
2 Luca MARINI SKY Racing Team VR46 2.153
3 Marco BEZZECCHI SKY Racing Team VR46 3.243
4 Sam LOWES EG 0,0 Marc VDS 3.817
5 Aron CANET Openbank Aspar Team Moto2 9.155
6 Jorge MARTIN Red Bull KTM Ajo 11.988
7 Thomas LUTHI Liqui Moly Intact GP 13.857
8 Xavi VIERGE Petronas Sprinta Racing 19.590
9 Stefano MANZI MV Agusta Forward Racing 20.199
10 Marcel SCHROTTER Liqui Moly Intact GP 20.262
11 Tetsuta NAGASHIMA Red Bull KTM Ajo 20.447
12 Nicolo BULEGA Federal Oil Gresini Moto2 21.464
13 Augusto FERNANDEZ EG 0,0 Marc VDS 24.804
14 Remy GARDNER Onexox TKKR SAG Team 26.370
15 Marcos RAMIREZ Tennor American Racing 27.018
16 Edgar PONS Federal Oil Gresini Moto2 27.126
17 Joe ROBERTS Tennor American Racing 30.228
18 Fabio DI GIANNANTONIO Beta Tools Speed Up 30.895
19 Bo BENDSNEYDER NTS RW Racing GP 41.678
20 Andi Farid IZDIHAR IDEMITSU Honda Team Asia 41.793
Not Classified
Lorenzo BALDASSARRI Flexbox HP 40 3 Laps
Simone CORSI MV Agusta Forward Racing 4 Laps
Hafizh SYAHRIN Openbank Aspar Team Moto2 11 Laps
Jorge NAVARRO Beta Tools Speed Up 14 Laps
Somkiat CHANTRA IDEMITSU Honda Team Asia 18 Laps
Hector GARZO Flexbox HP 40 19 Laps
Lorenzo DALLA PORTA Italtrans Racing Team 19 Laps
Kasma DANIEL Onexox TKKR SAG Team 20 Laps
Jake DIXON Petronas Sprinta Racing 21 Laps

Source: motogp.com, rwracinggp.com

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