NEWS 2011

Back

Great comeback for DARK DOG rider Baldolini

at Catalunya's Grand Prix last weekend

Barcelona, Spain: The ever changing weather was not able to ruin the qualifying practice of the Moto2 class during the Aperol Grand Prix of Catalunya, which saw the NGM Forward Racing Team ending up in 10th and 27th position.

After a spectacular performance throughout the grand prix weekend, Jules Cluzel was not able to repeat what he achieved during free practice and qualifying ending up in 23rd position after an unfortunate crash halfway through the race. On the other hand, his team mate Alex Baldolini, who initially struggled during the practice sessions, made a great comeback by finishing the race in 13th position.

DARK DOG is looking forward to the next race in Silverstone from 10th to 12th of June and is happy to support the riders and the whole NGM Forward Racing Team with MORE ENERGY!

Alex Baldolini, 25

13th position
"Today I am happy with my race, I managed to get in the points despite starting from the 27th position. We solved some problems that we encountered this weekend and I was able to keep a good pace throughout the whole race. It was not easy because at the end Iannone came back very strong, but I did two laps with a knife between my teeth and managed to pass Simeon to maintain some advantage. We knew that a small detachment of a few tenths might have been sufficient to fight for the points, but honestly I had my doubts of being able to recover fourteen positions and end up in thirteenth place. Now we must try to improve our performance in qualifying as today's Moto2 showed once again how decisive the grid position is to achieve a good result."

Jules Cluzel, 16

23rd position
"Unfortunately the race went not as I expected, from the first corners on I realized that with today's conditions the feeling with the tires was not as it has been in the previous days. In fact I could not repeat the time I did easily during that practice sessions. I hoped that as the tire would warmed up my feeling would improve and in the mean time I was trying to stay with the group in front of me. Instead of it, the feeling was never found, I tried to push harder anyway and I lost my front tire ending up crashing and rejoining the race and finishing in twenty-third position. It was certainly not the race that I would have dreamed of, because during the free practice I always had a good rhythm and an excellent feeling with the bike. For sure without the grip problems I would definitely fought for the top ten positions."