Moto2 rookie Rory Skinner pushed his OnlyFans American Racing Team Kalex across the line in today’s inaugural Indian Grand Prix after being knocked off by another rider at the final corner.
In the searing Indian heat, Rory made a great start on Friday to finish FP1 in 18th. As the conditions intensified in FP2, improvements were steady as he ended the day in 29th. Getting Saturday off to a good start, the Scot bettered Friday’s time by 1.5s in the final practice session.
Taking advantage of the wet conditions in Q1, he looked set for his first Q2 appearance before a flurry of late laps meant he missed out by 0.5s to start the race from 22nd.
As the race got underway, Rory made a decent start, avoiding a first turn pile up to run in 16th place before the red flag came out to allow marshals to clear up the debris.
At the restart, Rory dropped back several places after a mistake at turn one before setting about to regain the places. As the laps ticked down, the Scot picked up three places as he chased down Bo Bendsneyder and Borja Gomez to move up to 18th. Unfortunately, he was collected by Kohta Nozane at the final corner of the last lap, the Japanese rider crashing in front of Rory as they battled for 16th position. Determined to finish the race, and despite the sweltering conditions, Rory ran the bike towards the finish to bring to home in 20th.
Speaking after the race, Rory said: “It was a good weekend, well, a decent weekend overall. I made some good improvements throughout and was really happy with how Saturday morning went, I made some steps in FP3 after Friday and was within a second of the front guys but unfortunately, the P22 doesn’t reflect those improvements made.
“Obviously, the weather conditions were also something new for me, it’s not been this humid since I’ve been in the World Championship, but at the same time it’s been nice to visit India.
“In the race today I had a good start in the first part, made some good progress and was in a decent position when the red flag came out. The second start wasn’t as good for me, I didn’t quite get turn one right and lost a fair few positions off the line which wasn’t great. But I recovered quite well after running on at turn one early on and we made some steps in the right direction, was nice to claw my way back up through the group and have some fight in me on the last laps but not ideal to be wiped out at the final corner. I was gonna finish the race regardless of if I was running the bike there or riding it… I made it across the line!”