argentina – Scott Redding #45

Scott Redding chalks up his first Aprilia world championship points in Argentina

Scott Redding finished twelfth in today’s Argentine Grand Prix, thereby bringing home his first championship points with Aprilia.

But his race – in any case positive – was conditioned by a backache that tormented him the whole weekend. For him nonetheless, the Argentinian round represents a good base from which to pick up for the upcoming races, given the clear progress compared to his début race.

SCOTT REDDING
“It was a very long race. After lining up on the grid, there were some rather confusing moments. Fortunately, the delayed start gave everyone a chance to gain a better understanding of the situation. Today it was basically about interpreting the track conditions straight away and I must say that things worked quite well. I lost ground on the longest straight, whereas on the rest of the track I managed to stay close to my rivals. I am happy with the final result, both because I rediscovered the feeling after Qatar and for the guys on the team who really had to work under pressure today. Riding along with the other riders for the entire race distance also gave me a chance to better understand where the RS-GP and I need to improve and that will help us in the upcoming races.”

Good qualifying performance from Scott Redding in Argentina

Changing weather characterised the qualifying day on the Termas de Rio Hondo track today.

Scott Redding demonstrated good confidence, especially on the wet track, in terms of race pace and performance. In first qualifying session, with the asphalt in mixed conditions, the British rider battled for a spot in Q2.

Unfortunately, the rising temperature of his wet tyres kept him from shaving of the few tenths he needed to get into the top 12. Scott, who is still suffering with a backache, will start from the fifth row tomorrow.

SCOTT REDDING
“I feel good on the RS-GP in the various conditions that we found here in Argentina. Especially in the rain, but also in the dry, I am rather satisfied with our settings. I would have liked to have worked a bit more with the dry track to remove some doubt about tyre choice. In mixed conditions I usually struggle a lot with tyre temperature, whereas I must say that with this bike the problem was significantly less evident. Unfortunately, this morning the pain in my back was really bad. I preferred waiting until the afternoon to use the pain killers and suffer less in qualifying. The pain is moving downward. I don’t know if that is good or bad, but I am working on being in the best possible condition tomorrow.”

Excellent eighth place for Scott Redding in Argentina

At the end of a race full of emotions in Argentina, Octo Pramac Racing celebrated the precious double Top 10 conquered by Scott Redding and teammate Danilo Petrucci and looks enthusiastically at the third place (first team Ducati) in the Team ranking of the World MotoGP Championship.

Scott Redding can be extremely happy with a very positive result that gives him a fantastic fourth place in the World Championship classification. The British rider, who started from fifteenth position, did well not to make mistakes in the early laps and this enabled him to climb positions also taking advantage of some crashes.

In the last four laps Scott was involved in a terrific scrap with Miller and was able to hold onto 8th place until the checkered.

8th – Scott Redding
“It was difficult. I expected a better performance, especially in the middle part of the race. At the beginning I lacked speed. I could not put the front tire at the right temperature and this didn’t allow me to find the same grip of the warm up. Then things got better. In the last few laps I had to be aggressive and smart to respond to Miller’s attacks and finish eighth. An excellent result”.

Scott Redding confident for Argentine race after tricky qualifying

There were positive sensations for Scott Redding in the mixed conditions on the Qualifying day in Argentina, who lapped very fast in a dry FP3 session (with the hard tire) skimming the direct qualification to Q2 (-71 milliseconds). The British rider felt at ease in wet conditions also, ending up FP4 one tenth of a second behind the Top 5.

In Q1, however, Scott was not able to find the ideal conditions to beat the competition of Dani Pedrosa and Valentino Rossi, finishing in 15th position with a best time of 1’50.048.

15th – Scott Redding – 1’50.048
“It has been a positive day. I am very happy with how things went in FP3. The feeling with the bike was really good since the start and this was the most important goal to achieve today. I started well even in FP4 with wet conditions, then I felt some problems on the rear. I tried to do my best in Q1 but the conditions were really difficult. All things considered I’m confident for the race”.

Technical difficulties see Scott Redding’s race end early in Argentina

At Termas de Rio Hondo, in Argentina, Scott Redding was the protagonist of a superlative race until, five laps from the end, he had to surrender to a technical problem that forced him to stop.

This is the story of the second round of 2016 MotoGp season for Octo Yakhnich Pramac team which tomorrow will leave to Austin, in the United States, where the next weekend will be held the third GP of the calendar at the Circuit of the Americas.

The race of Termas de Rio Hondo was marked by many crashes but also by the spectacular return of Scott Redding who after having lost some position to avoid being involved in the clash between Crutchlow and Espargaro, found himself in 17th position. From that moment Scott began lapping with great consistency, recording very interesting lap-times, in line with the leading group.

Before the flag to flag on lap 10, Redding was able to make up ten places and get in wake of Pedrosa thanks to a series of fast laps around 1’41.4. After passing the official Honda on lap 12, Scott seemed able to handle what would be a great result, especially in light of the successive crashes of Vinales, Iannone and Dovizioso. But a technical problem has betrayed him.

DNF – Scott Redding
“It was a good race even though at the beginning I made a mistake that drove me away from the leading group. Then things went well, even the flag to flag was quick. I was going well, I felt I could take Pedrosa and I did it. Then I lost power a few laps from the end. A shame. Maybe if I haven’t committed that mistake at the beginning I could stay with the guys in front but I must say that the feeling was really ok. In Qatar we struggled a lot, here things went well, especially in terms of power. I admit that I also had some problems in qualifying in Argentina and this is an aspect I want to improve in the USA.”

Source – Pramac Racing