Disappointed Salom loses out on Assen podium after photo finish

Luis Salom had to swallow hard. A photo finish revealed the Spanish rider of RW Racing GP missed out on the podium by one thousandth of a second. The two millimeter difference between the front tire of Danny Kent and the one of Luis Salom was not visible with the naked eye.

The Moto3 race of the Dutch TT was exciting from start to finish. Salom moved up to fifth straight from the start. Within a few laps he was leading the race or somewhere in the top 4. A large group managed to stay together for quite a while. In lap 7 the gap between the leader and number 20 was only two seconds.

Halfway through the 22 lap race a group of five emerged from the rest: Viñales, Cortese, Kent, Rossi and Salom. Cortese and Kent seemed to battle out their own duel and smacked their bikes against each other with three laps to go. In the final lap Luis Salom broke through to leading the race until the very last corner.

Luis Salom (4th): “I don’t know what to say. Obviously I am very disappointed. I should have won this race. I made my move in the last lap in the Ramshoek and I was so eager to win that I made a small mistake in braking in the last chicane. That is where I lost it to Viñales. Crossing the finish line I had the feeling I was third and you could tell Danny Kent thought he was fourth. That is why he rode to his garage and I to the parc ferme. There they told me a photo finish was carried out. Johan (Stigefelt, team manager) went to race direction to file a complaint and look at the photo finish himself. Two millimeter! I can’t believe it. It was such a difficult race. I was on the limit the whole time. There was no time to think about tactics or where and when to overtake. It was just a matter of putting my head down and go.”

Team manager Johan Stigefelt: “Luis did an unbelievable job. He rode like a champion. He really deserved the victory. It will come. The engine was not as strong as we hoped for. Luis and Brad both lost a lot of space on the straights and had to make up in the corners. We have to talk to KTM about that.”

Team owner Roelof Waninge: “We had high expectations for our home race, without asking too much because we all know Luis is capable of winning. It’s a big disappointment, but he fought like a lion. I am proud of Luis.”

Source: RW Racing GP Press Release