PETALING JAYA, April 12 — A week after creating history in Argentina where he became the first Malaysian to win a race in the premier motorcycling series, Khairul Idham Pawi could only place 20th in the Circuit Of The Americas (Cota) Moto3 race on Sunday.
“It was a difficult qualifying for me,” admitted the Honda Team Asia rider.
“I was not able to improve my lap time. Starting from the back of the grid wasn’t easy
“Considering my bad starting grid (32nd), it was a good race because we have improved by 12 positions. The race was difficult but I tried as hard as I could. Now I am looking forward to Jerez.”
Fellow Malaysian Adam Norrodin, suffered another setback when he crashed in turn one after being hit by Khairul’s teammate Hiroki Ono.
Adam also crashed in Argentina, falling in the penultimate lap when he was chasing second place.
“It was difficult to use the rear brakes with my injured right foot and that’s why I crashed into Adam,” said 23-year-old Ono.
Italy’s Romano Fenati captured his first Moto3 win of the seaosn in dominant style, clocking 41:14.868s.
He was 6.612s quicker than Jorge Navarro of Spain in a Honda while South Africa’s series leader Brad Binder powered his KTM past German Philipp Oettl on the final lap to take third, 10.535s back.
In Moto2, Hafizh Syahrin had a race to forget when he finished outside the points.
Despite Cota being one of his favourite tracks, Hafizh was hampered by tyre issues that caused massive front chatter, making it impossible for the young Malaysian to improve his lap time and position during the race.
The Petronas Talent Development rider had to settle for 16th, rounding up the gruelling 19-lap battle in 41:51.515s which saw him drop to ninth in the standings with 23 points.
Spaniard Alex Rins dominated the field to steal a commanding victory in 41:22.174s ahead of Britain’s Sam Lowes and reigning world champion, Johann Zarco.
The team will now head back to Europe where Jerez will host Round 4 on April 24.
