MS Aprilia Racing's Jeremy McWiliams ended a gruelling Malaysian GP in 15th position Sunday, with stand-in team-mate Garry McCoy just one place further back after a positive debut on board the Cube three-cylinder machine.
McWilliams claimed a hard-earned world championship point in baking hot conditions that saw air temperatures hit a weekend high this afternoon at 40 degrees.
Starting from 18th position on the grid, McWilliams found himself in 15th at the end of lap two, and as action intensified as he fought to keep in touch with a pack of riders that included
Marco Melandri, Ruben Xaus and
Colin Edwards, he was 14th by the end of lap nine.
His pace then began to suffer as the high track temperature started to take its toll on tyres. Track temperatures during the Sunday afternoon's 21-lap race hit 59 degrees, some eight degrees hotter than at any time during two days of practice and qualifying.
McWilliams started to drop off the bike just short of half-distance as he ran into front tyre grip problems. He fell back to 16th when McCoy passed him on lap 13, but when the Australian started to struggle with grip problems of his own in the closing stages of the race, McWilliams fought back on lap 18 to snatch a point.
“The race was really good fun until about lap 10," admitted Mc
Williams. "I wasn't far behind Xaus and decided to push a bit to see if I could close the gap on him even more. But then I had a couple of big moments with the front. I just thought I'd hit a slippery or dirty part of the track, but I'd lost about a second on Xaus and then just struggled from that point. I kept losing the front and from then on it was preservation.
"Because I was struggling with the front, I had to use the rear more and in a few laps I started struggled with that. A point is a point and after a race like that I'm happy because it was tough in those conditions.”
