Pramac Ducati’s Scott Redding thought he would never finish a MotoGP race this year after some recent bad luck, but all that changed during a very wet race at Assen. The British rider crossed a rain soaked finishing line in third place, to bag his first rostrum position of the season.
Redding did start from the front row twice, once through qualifying, and then when the race was restarted after it was red flagged due to poor weather conditions. He was caught in a battle for third with Pol Espargaro but overtook him with two laps to go, and was just behind Repsol Honda’s Marc Marquez, and the eventual race winner, Jack Miller.
The tall racer did not have the best of starts but kept pushing and made sure that he didn’t make any silly mistakes. His strategy paid off as he knew his limit and rode a mature race to take home some points for his team this afternoon.
“Both races I started the race not so good as I wanted to understand the track and not make any silly mistakes in the beginning. In the first race when the rain came I felt better, going into the second race we had a lot of rain so when I went off the start I didn’t want to push too much and lose the race in the first laps,” said Redding at the track.
“I pushed more than I wanted to and I took one step back and I saw some guys crash and I think the level I had was ok and the the track came to me. I started to catch Pol and I thought there is no reason to pass (yet) and I felt on the limit and I saved it with two laps to go and I passed him on the first corner and finished third.
“We had a lot of bad luck and we didn’t give up and starting from the front row was also good, and then today to finish third was also amazing. After struggling I thought maybe I will never get to finish a race this year and now I did and now I am here and I am really happy.”
