NEWS 2010

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Like a Victory -

Dramatic 2 points for DARK DOG rider Jules Cluzel

Barcelona, Spain: The Aperol Grand Prix de Catalunya, the seventh race of the MotoGP World Championship, took place on the Circuit of Barcelona with temperatures of almost 40şC.

The DARK DOG riders have already collected important information during last races and used the first hour of this practice session to identify the direction in which they have to work. The session ended for Jules Cluzel in ninth position with a gap of only four tenth to the pole setter and for his teammate Claudio Corti in 20th place. The young Italian was able to lower his lap time of the winter tests of more than one second.

The qualifying Saturday finished with bittersweet results for the Forward Racing Team with an excellent fifth place for Jules Cluzel who got himself to be among the first rows on race day and only the 37th position on the grid for Claudio Corti. Jules showed to be a rider who is growing up quickly, using every chance to make the best result without doing mistakes. Unfortunately the Frenchman lost 15 minutes caused by a time-consuming change on the clutch to improve the stability of the bike. But he caught up within a few laps and achieved a promising position giving him the possibility to attack during the Sunday race. His teammate Claudio, instead, did not feel completely comfortable with the settings of his bike and had to struggle with a probably defect tyre even though obtained an improvement of one tenth from the time of the free practice.

The results of the Forward Racing Team on race day might be seen in two completely different ways - Jules actually achieved the 14th position, but without the accident at the first corner caused by Alex Debon, which influenced the race of at least 8 riders, it would have been certainly a podium for the French rider. After the crash he ended up on the 33rd position, had to recover from the pain caused by the punch received during the incident, nevertheless he did a fantastic race overtaking 19 of his opponents. Otherwise Jules would have been able to follow without any problems the speed of the leading group fighting with them for the victory.

After a weekend full of difficulties, Jules teammate Claudio Corti, finished on 22nd place. The back row on the grid marked the beginning of the race for the Italian rider. The not-the-very-best start made it difficult to catch up some important positions during the race. The positive side is that Cladio could gain more experience on this track, which he might use to handle the difficulties in the upcoming races in the best possible way.

The Forward Racing Team and DARK DOG are looking forward to the future races, wishing the team as many points as possible, with the aim to continue their improvement of the positions in the championship standing.

Jules Cluzel

14th position
"I am really sorry for the result of the race. Because until the warm up I did not have a perfect feeling with the bike, but the modifications we made for the race were fantastic and I am sure I would have been in a position to fight for the victory of the race. Unfortunately after the first corner I found myself at the end of the field because I was pushed out of the track by another rider, damaging the bike. As I hit the tank very strong with the stomach I was not able to breathe for a few seconds. Anyway, the positive aspect is that I could maintain a high rhythm during the whole race passing a lot of riders to get at least a few points at the end, even though we lost another opportunity to collect important points for the world championship standing. But in any case we know that our bike is always competitive and we are looking forward to the next race with the hope that also the fortune turns back towards us.

Moto2 World Standing 2010

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