Xavier Simeon couldn't hide his disappointment after seeing his wonderful qualifying performance cancelled out by an accident at the first corner of the German Grand Prix.
The Belgian was seventh in the grid after his best dry qualifying session of the year but was caught out when Julian Simon was tagged from behind going into turn one. The Mapfre Aspar Suter was sent barrelling into the gravel leaving the Tech 3 youngster with nowhere to go as he tried to go around the outside.
Simeon recovered to finish 18th, an impressive result in the circumstances, but was left to look back on what might have been.
“I was next to Simón and I could see that he was hit by another rider and then he rode into me and I went out on the gravel with him. I lost a lot of time and then I was with Bradley (Smith). When I came back on the track I tried to find my rhythm again and I don’t know why but after my excursion into the gravel I experienced a lot of chattering in the slow parts of the track for the rest of the race.”
“We didn’t have any of these problems during this weekend until then and we need to check the bike to find out what happened. I could not push very hard at the beginning to reach the group in front of me. After six or seven laps I found a constant rhythm again and could catch the other riders. But I am really disappointed, we could have done a Top 10 today, but that’s racing I guess. We were just unlucky today.”
Despite the disappointment, team manager Herve Poncharal was impressed by Simeon's display and is sure that his luck will turn in the second half of the season.
“I am really sorry for Xavier as he did a really good weekend. And it had nothing to do with him, unfortunately Simón crashed in the first corner of the first lap and took him out in the gravel and that was it. For sure if you go out on the gravel after a start out of third row and after such a good qualifying yesterday, the motivation is not as big as if you could hold your position in the first lap. I am very sorry for Xavier, but that is racing. I want to tell him that he did a really good job this weekend and I hope he will come back to Brno as strong as we saw him here this weekend at Sachsenring and for sure things like today will not happen every single race.”
