ANOTHER TOP 10 RESULT FOR ROOKIE ROULSTONE IN MUGELLO, HOLGADO GRABS SMALL POINTS AFTER DOUBLE LONG LAP PENALTY

It was an eventful Moto3™ race that took place on Sunday at the Gran Premio d’Italia Brembo. Red Bull GASGAS Tech3’s Daniel Holgado and Jacob Roulstone had a decent shot for strong points, respectively starting from rows 2 and 3. A lap 3-crash in Turn 9 involving multiple riders forced the red-flag to be waived, and the race was restarted at 11:25 LT with the grid positions based on standings as of lap 3, with Jacob in 6th and Dani in 8th. Rookie Roulstone made it another time in the top 10, finishing 9th, while Holgado scored two tiny points with a P14, after he was handed a double long lap penalty during the race.

Opening the third row, Australian Jacob Roulstone got a great launch as he kept his line until placing himself just enough to brake at turn 1 well in the inside, moving up by two positions. He found himself fifth behind Colin Veijer as David Alonso and Ivan Ortola flew away, but the duo Viejer-Furusato was affordable. Jose Antonio Rueda overtook him, and just after a crash in turn 9 forced the race direction to red-flag the race. Roulstone restarted from the sixth place, a different scenario from the early one. Lights out for the 2nd time, Jacob’s start was not quite as good as the previous one, as he struggled to find his space in a busy T1, with teammate Holgado moving ahead of him. He was in P8 after the first lap. Lap 2 was fast, faster than the #96, and Jacob moved up to 7th, as he led the chasing group. In lap 6, the front six were nearly 3 seconds away, but a small mistake of Jacob saw him dropping to P12, behind Bertelle. Eventually he recovered to P10, and a late crash of Ivan Ortola ahead offered him the ninth position, as the rookie scored another seven points to head to the 3-week-break with a total of 42, making him first of the 2024 rookie of the year classification!

For Daniel Holgado, the first race start was not quite perfect after he did struggle to make his way through turn 1, with his teammate Roulstone getting the better of him. As the race was red-flagged, Dani was eighth. At the restart, the take off was much better for Holgado who took the advantage on his teammate this time, but as he struggled braking arriving in T1. He had to lift himself up a bit to avoid crashing, but Rueda was in his wheel, and could not avoid Holgado, and he went down, taking down Nepa with him. Somehow deemed ‘responsible’ of this incident by the race direction, he was given a double long lap penalty due to irresponsible riding. Once these two complete, Holgado was in P17, and from there, the Spaniard did everything he could to at least score points. He finished in P14 but lost ground on championship leader David Alonso, as he heads to the three week-break thirty-seven points behind the Aspar rider.

Below official statement received from the race direction regarding Daniel Holgado's double long lap penalty:

Position: 9^th

Championship: 10^th

Points: 43

"We are happy to get another top 10 result, although I am a bit annoyed with myself for the decision to go with the medium tyre, but we learn from these mistakes. We raced well, especially within the first laps, I feel like I have improved in this area since my debuts in the class, which is a good thing. It was a shame though that I could not go with the front group. As soon as I opened the gas, there were obviously many riders, the straight was so long but turn 1 was quite tight, so I lost a bit of contact with the front there. We take away a lot of positives from this weekend, so thank you to my team for their awesome job this weekend! In a couple of weeks, we will go to Assen, a track that I like where I got a podium in the Red Bull rookies cup, so I’m excited to go!"

Position: 14^th

Championship: 2^nd

Points: 106

"Tough race for us after we got the double long lag penalty that killed our race. We still managed to score a few points, it's better than nothing. We have a small break coming, and we will focus on training as well as we can to arrive in Assen strong, because we need to be back in the top positions if we want to stay in the championship fight. Thank you to my team for their work this weekend!”

Team Principal

"At the start of the first race, both Daniel Holgado and Jacob Roulstone got a good start and were building up their race in the front group, but unfortunately the race was red-flagged. At the restart, Dani took off well, and did nothing wrong in turn 1 as he was just squeezed with other riders. Unfortunately another rider touched him, crashed, taking down another one. We reviewed that incident a few times in slow motion, it was obvious that it was just a race event. We were incredibly shocked when Dani received a double long lap penalty, it ruined his race, and it will have a big impact on his title challenge. We went to the race direction and could not get any other explanation than a simple 'ambitious/irresponsible riding manoeuvre'. I invite everyone to re-watch this incident, and explain to me how this deserved a double long lap penalty. We did not get any other explanation, and I think that when a championship is at stake, it is a true disgrace and a lack of respect coming from the race direction. I feel really sorry for Daniel Holgado and his crew who are working so hard to fight for the title. On the other hand, Jacob Roulstone did another super good race, starting from P7 to finish in P9. Another solid weekend for our rookie who continues to improve every race weekend, and I am super happy for him. Well done to Jacob and his team.”

GALLERY

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