Quartararo Claims First Point In Argentina

KUALA LUMPUR, April 1 (Bernama) -- The Petronas Yamaha Sepang Racing Team (Petronas Yamaha SRT) riders, Fabio Quartararo claimed his first MotoGP points of the season at Argentina Grand Prix, Sunday night. At the race held at Termas de Rio Hondo, Quartararo of France collected eight points after finishing in eighth position with a time of 42:04.091s. "I am very happy with what we have done in Argentina. I was worried before coming here because we had not tested the track and it is a circuit at which I had always struggled in other classes. But this weekend, I was always in the Top 10, so it's been very positive. "I learned a lot from the other riders today. I made some mistakes at the start, through being over-eager to do things well. It was my first time in the middle of a group battling with a full fuel tank, so it wasn't easy. "Later on we were able to find our pace and have a good race. I want to thank the entire team for the great work they have done, both today and throughout the weekend," he said in the statement issued by the team, Monday. The Malaysian first MotoGP team experienced mixed fortunes after Quartararo teammate's Franco Morbidelli of Italy suffered an unfortunate crash on the final lap, when fighting for sixth place. Morbidelli's unfortunate crash came at Turn 7 during the last lap of the race when he was in eighth position and challenging for the top six. Quartararo and Morbidelli are now in 12th and 16th position in the overall standings, respectively, with eight and five points apiece. Meanwhile, Petronas Sprinta Racing rider Khairul Idham Pawi showed a solid race pace to achieve his first three points of the Moto2 World Championship season after recording 40:02.613s to finish in 13th position. "I'm very happy with the bike and especially with the team, since we worked a lot ahead of this race and the feeling was very good. I made some mistakes, but the tyre was wearing out very fast and I was trying to manage the situation. "The positive thing is that I improved with every lap and was trying to reduce the gap to the frontrunners. Now we just have to improve some small things in order to be better in the races," said Khairul Idham who is 18th in the Moto2 World Championship standings. The next race will take place at the Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas, from April 12-14th. -- BERNAMA