On 20th May, the German rider from Mahindra racing, Marcel Schrotter stood at 12th position to bag four points of the Moto3 season for the domestic team despite the duplicitous conditions at French Grand Prix, Le Mans. However, Schrotter defied the tricky conditions that witnessed more than 50 per cent of the 33 racers fall out, and acquired points for the all-new Mahindra MGP-30 Moto3 machine. The four points comes as a relief to team Mahindra since its other rider, Danny Webb, a 21 years old English, gave up to the slick conditions.
What went wrong for the domestic team riders were the wet conditions at the qualifying session after they had three dry free practices. It left them with a start from the back. Both Webb and Schrotter missed the qualifying time that is 107 per cent of the pole time.
Before he fell, Danny could only complete 3 laps. He could not join the race any further. Schrotter joined the race after the repairs and went to complete 8 laps. They will be able to begin the race, owing to their respectable positions in the free practice
A gritty race complete with showers saw only 15 of the 33 riders cross the finish line. Schrotter rode skilfully through the wet and slippery track and crossed the chequered flag attaining the12th position. The winner of the race, which is fourth in the 17 round season, was the ace rider Louis Rossi.
After the race, Schrotter commented, "We had so many problems this weekend and the conditions were treacherous. Our engine is quite aggressive, making it more difficult in the wet. From the start, it was so difficult - so slippery you could hardly go round the corners. By the end I just wanted to finish, even if I lost positions. But it paid off, because so many other riders crashed, and I did finish and it is good to get points.”
On the other hand, luck didn't favour the other rider, Webb, after his bike broke down. He was forced to start the race from the pit lane, retiring from the race later. Webb said, "I had a problem on the grid and had to start from pit lane ... They'd already gone when I got going. I overtook one person and had quite a nice rhythm. I could see I was starting to catch Marcel, then I tried a little bit too hard, and the bike was down. We've had loads of problems this weekend, but we'll keep trying and we'll be alright.”
