Termas de Río Hondo, Argentina – 16 April 2015: Tito Rabat scored his first points of the 2015 season with a hard fought fourth place in Austin, but the Team Estrella Galicia 0,0 Marc VDS rider has his sights set firmly on the podium this weekend in Argentina.

A crash and no points in the opening race in Qatar means that Rabat currently lies 10th in the championship standings and 16 points adrift of series leader, Alex Rins. It’s a gap that the Team Estrella Galicia 0,0 Marc VDS rider is confident of closing this weekend at Termas de Rio Honda, a track he won at on his way to the World Championship title last season, after finding a solution in Austin to the lack of front-end feedback that had hampered him throughout preseason testing.

Alex Marquez marked his second appearance for Team Estrella Galicia 0,0 Marc VDS with another points scoring finish at the end of a difficult weekend in Austin. The Moto2 rookie struggled to find a good feeling with the bike at the Circuit of the Americas, but is confident that a top ten result is a realistic goal at Termas de Rio Hondo, where he finished on the Moto3 podium last year.

Tito Rabat:
“In Austin, especially on Saturday, I felt a lot more comfortable on the bike after we made some changes to get more feedback from the front. It meant I was able to attack and brake hard with a better feeling from the front and the bike was also less physically demanding to ride. I am happy about this improvement, but not so much about the result. Here in Argentina it is important that we try to do a good practice on Friday and Saturday, continue improving the bike and put together a good strategy for the race. With this bike we now have the possibility to fight for the win on Sunday, but if we’re to do this then we need to put in the work from the first practice onwards.” 

Alex Marquez:
“It was a tough weekend in Austin, where I never really had a good feeling with the bike, but the track here at Termas de Río Hondo is very different and should suit more my riding style. I like this circuit and I was on the podium here in Moto3 last year but, again, it will be different on the Moto2 bike. We need to work hard in practice to find a good set up with the bike this weekend, to make another step forward and improve the feeling compared to Austin. The approach remains the same, to improve step-by-step and if we can do that here in Argentina then I think my first top ten finish in Moto2 is a realistic goal on Sunday.”