Amongst all the chaos, Hafizh Syahrin (Monster Yamaha Tech 3) kept a cool head to earn his first premier class top ten, coming home in ninth, beating experienced riders such as Danilo Petrucci (Alma Pramac Racing), Pol Espargaro (Red Bull KTM Factory Racing) and Jorge Lorenzo (Ducati Team) in the process.
After a great ride to P14 in Qatar, the 23-year-old backed that result up with an impressive display in tricky conditions at the Termas de Rio Hondo circuit – finishing less than ten seconds behind Movistar Yamaha factoy rider Maverick Viñales after starting in 23rd on the grid. The Malaysian – who has three grand prix podiums to his name – was also just 0.390 seconds behind MotoGP™ race winner Andrea Iannone (Team Suzuki Ecstar), and arguably even more impressively, was less than two seconds back from Qatar race winner Andrea Dovizioso (Ducati Team). Here’s what the Tech 3 rider had to say after the race.
“I’m really happy, thank you to my team, my sponsors and everybody that supports me,” Syahrin began. “We were very strong in the first day here, I was close to the front in the dry and not so far off but in the qualifying we had tricky conditions and we had a little bit of a problem to stop the bike. I didn’t find any good grip so I must accept that we start from P23. But in the race, I was full motivation from the warm up, we tried a different setting in the wet conditions and I felt really good, and I say ok this Sunday, I think I can make a good job in the race.”
And a good job of it he did too. You would have easily forgiven the rookie – in only his second start – to make a mistake or finish further down the order in such tricky circumstances. However, once again, the Malaysian rider showed his class to bring his Tech 3 machine home. Syahrin went on to explain his race.
“Yes it was an amazing race, in the beginning everyone was nervous because of the mixed conditions, but I like these conditions because we are mixed, then I really push hard in the race until the finish. I was fighting with Petrucci and was very close to Valentino, you know I learnt a lot of experience from them.”