An early crash ends Augusto Fernandez’s hopes of a good start to the 2020 season in Qatar but there are many positives to take away from the weekend.

• After Sam Lowes’ withdrawal from the Grand Prix of Qatar on Saturday due to an injured right shoulder, Augusto Fernandez was the lone Team Estrella Galicia 0,0 Marc VDS representative on the grid for the opening Moto2 race of 2020.
• The 22-year old Majorcan was one of only five riders to choose the harder Dunlop front tyre compound for the 20-lap race in the hope it would benefit him in the later laps.
• However Fernandez had a difficult start to the race from 12^th on the grid. The three-time Moto2 race winner ended the first lap in 16^th position.
• Entering turn six on lap three, Fernandez then made contact with Stefano Manzi ahead, causing him to crash out of the race. A disappointing end, but the potential is there for a strong result at the next race.

/// AUGUSTO FERNANDEZ, DNF

“I have to learn from this weekend”

“First of all I want to say sorry to the team. It’s a pity to start the season like this because I thought we could have a good race today. At the end I did a bad first lap and I was in the dangerous positions, where things like this can happen. I had contact with Manzi but this is racing. I have to learn from this weekend. I think we made a great step from the test to this weekend and now we just have to move onto the next race.”

/// JOAN OLIVÉ, Team Manager  

“We need to take the positives and we feel prepared for this long season”

“It’s not the start to the season that we expected but we can take positive things from this weekend. Augusto feels much more comfortable on the bike and during the practice we could see his pace was quite good. He was posting very competitive lap times. Unfortunately he touched with another rider in the race and had a crash. But in the end we need to take the positives. We now feel prepared for this long season. With Sam we saw that he already feels better than we expected. It’s only three weeks since his accident and with Thailand being postponed we are sure he’ll be much fitter at the next round and ready to race again.”