Podium For DRIVE M7 SIC Racing Team At Season Finale

Comunitat Valenciana - Ricardo Tormo, Spain – Sunday 8th November

Circuit: Circuito de la Comunitat Valenciana
Circuit Length: 4.0 km

The final round of the 2015 Moto3 World Championship saw the DRIVE M7 SIC Racing Team secure their second podium of the year, with Jakub Kornfeil claiming a superb 3rd place finish across the line. Continuing his strong form, the Czech rider immediately launched himself into the leading group, where he fought hard to remain until the chequered flag.

Following a good performance throughout the weekend, the Valencia Grand Prix saw teammate Zulfahmi Khairuddin narrowly miss out on a point scoring finish. Despite starting from twenty first place on the grid, the determined Malaysian rider worked hard to build his pace, but locked in a battle for the points, was unable to hold off his competitors, concluding the weekend in 17th place.

Johan Stigefelt – Team Manager

“We’ve had a great end to the season with Jakub finishing third. It was a good race from him; from the beginning he was in the front group with the leaders and he was circulating around sixth position. Unfortunately he dropped back a little bit when there was about five or six laps to go but he kept his head down and when Binder passed him, he fought back and passed him back on the last lap. Credit to him for this because that basically rewarded him with the third position. We were a bit lucky today too but Jakub and the team have done a great job all weekend so he really deserves it and so do the team. We’ve been showing the last five races that we are very strong and we are improving all the time, which looks good for next year. I want to thank Jakub and the whole crew for doing so well in the team’s debut season. Now we will take a well-deserved break and move on to 2016.
Fahmi has also had a good weekend here and has been showing he has speed and is competitive. Unfortunately in the race he didn’t have the extra pace that we’d been expecting and that we’d seen all weekend, which is a shame because I’m sure Fahmi was also capable of a top ten result today. In any case I want to thank Fahmi for this year. It’s been a pleasure working with him and we wish him all the best for the future.
Thanks also to all of our sponsors, Sepang Circuit and Drive M7 who have been supporting us throughout the year. We look forward to continuing in 2016.”

#63 Zulfahmi Khairuddin – P17

“The beginning of the race was good and I was able to immediately pass a few riders. After ten laps I was able to build my speed and consistently do 1m40s lap times; I just struggled towards the end with grip, especially in turns ten and eleven where I experienced a lot of chatter. At this point it was difficult to stick with the other riders. Overall this weekend I’m happy with our performance, we’ve been strong throughout the practice sessions and it wasn’t until qualifying that we encountered a couple of issues with our set-up. I’m disappointed that I didn’t achieve a better result for the last race of the year; I honestly wanted a lot more this weekend but this was the best I could do today. I want to say a special thanks to the team and all the people around me who have been supporting me throughout the season and especially SIC [Sepang International Circuit] who have been with me for the last seven years. I hope that one day in the future I can come back.”

#84 Jakub Kornfeil – P3

“I feel amazing because I didn’t expect this result before the race. Since Friday we’ve known we have good pace here; the bike has been working really well throughout and I’ve felt good at a track that I usually don’t enjoy so much. This year it has been different and for the last four races, here and overseas, we’ve been very fast. This is a great way to end the season and to start another year, for both myself and the team. During the race I thought I could finish before Binder but he was also very fast so it was not easy, but I knew I had to try and at least finish as the second KTM behind Oliveira. I tried to do this and the plan worked. The bike was working so well, which made my life easier, so I have to say a big thanks to my crew for this. What happened in the last corner was luck for me; I could have finished sixth in front of Binder or third with three people going down. So for sure I also had luck on my side in the race but still after all of our work and progress, I think we really deserved this podium finish. I’m really happy to take our second podium of the year because I’ve never done this in my career before and yet this season I’ve achieved it twice; it’s a fantastic feeling for me, for my head and for all next year. I will go into the winter so happy. Thanks so much to all of the team and to the sponsors who are so important. I look forward to starting a new year with them all again in 2016.”

-SIC Racing Team facebook.

PelanconganKini supports DRIVE M7 SIC Racing Team.Note: DRIVE M7 SIC Racing Team Polo T-shirt & Round Neck T-shirt is now available at http://www.m7shop.com/home.aspx

M7 Energy Drink (European Version) also now available.