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Pole man Kunii secures second successive win

16/10/2016
 
Saturday, 15 October 2016
Pole man Kunii secures
second successive win
 
The first race of the weekend in Japan for the riders competing in the 2016 Shell Advance Asia Talent Cup saw home rider Yuki Kunii take his second consecutive victory, doing so from pole in front of the Japanese fans.
 
With the young riders in the Cup racing alongside the stars of MotoGP™ at Motegi as part of the Grand Prix of Japan, Kunii won an exciting race late on Saturday afternoon, to follow up on his win in Race 2 in China at the last round.
 
Having got away in pole position at the head of an all-Japanese front row, which also featured Ryusei Yamanaka and Kazuki Masaki, Kunii went on to win the 15-lap race around the superb 4.8km Twin Ring Motegi track in style.
 
On the back of his excellent weekend in China Ai Ogura made a good start from fourth on the grid, with a large group running together at the front in the early laps. After much shuffling in the lead pack a group of five riders pulled away, including the Japanese quartet of Masaki, Kunii, Ogura and Yamanaka, who were joined by Indonesia’s Andi Izdihar.
 
Eventually Kunii took control of the race to pull away and take maximum points, ahead of Masaki who finished in second place having got the better of Ogura on the last lap. Another close battle on the final lap saw Yamanaka beat Izdihar for fourth.
 
In sixth place was standings leader Somkiat Chantra, whilst another rider in the championship fight, Gerry Salim, finished down in tenth.
 
Reviewing Race 1 in Japan, Alberto Puig, Director of the Shell Advance Asia Talent Cup, commented: “I'm very happy with the first race in Japan. It was very nice, the front group was very fast, faster than last year and we saw an exciting fight. We were happy with the weather, it wasn't too cold, so we hope that tomorrow will be the same.”
 
Track Conditions R1
Air Temperature: 18.4ºC
Track temperature: 32ºC – 20.9ºC
Humidity: 23% - 48%
Wind: 2.5 South West – 1.8 South West
Conditions: Dry
 
The results of Race 1 of the penultimate weekend of the 2016 Shell Advance Asia Talent Cup mean Chantra remains top of the standings with 140 points, Ogura sits second on 135 points, just ahead of Izdihar in third on 133 points. Also in the top six are Salim (126 points), Yamanaka (124 points) and race winner Kunii (119 points).
 
Race 2 of the weekend takes place at 3.30pm local time on Sunday after the MotoGP™ race at the Grand Prix of the Japan. After that the Shell Advance Asia Talent Cup riders will reconvene for their final races of the season at Sepang over the Grand Prix of Malaysia weekend in two weeks time.
 
Download our Media Flyer by clicking here.
Download Race 1 and Championship Standings by clicking here.
 
You can follow all the action from Race 2 Live via this link
Watch Race 1 Highlights by clicking here
 
 

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