HAFIZH Syahrin Abdullah moved one rung up to 19th in the Moto2 championship standings after an 11th place finish in the Grand Prix of Aragon in Spain yesterday.
The 20-year old Petronas Raceline Malaysia rider did well to move up from 17th on the grid and hold on to 11th spot in the race that saw Paginas Amarillas-HP 40’s Maverick Vinales take victory to close the gap to second in the championship.
Locked in a battle with championship leader Esteve Rabat of
the Marc VDS team, Vinales managed to hold off his fellow Spaniard with a 1.4s gap at the finish line, as AirAsia-Caterham’s Johann Zarco took third spot, four seconds behind.
Malaysian veteran Azlan Shah Kamaruzaman of the Idemitsu-Honda Team Asia only managed 19th spot.
In the Moto3 class, Ongetta-AirAsia’s Mohd Zulfahmi Khairuddin managed to add just one more point to his disappointing tally after another struggle to finish 15th from 18th on the grid.
Compatriot Amirul Hafiq Mohd Azmi of the SIC-Ajo team produced an improved performance by finishing 18th from a 28th grid spot, one of the better outings in his uninspiring debut season.
The MotoGP season moves into its final four races of the season, beginning with the Japanese Grand Prix in Motegi on Oct 8-10. By Arnaz M. Khairul