Whereas the Japanese Grand Prix was influenced by rain and bike swaps, the Frenchman battled amongst grand prix winners
Casey Stoner,
Dani Pedrosa and
Marco Melandri for almost the entire 21 laps at Sepang - eventually finishing just 3.7secs from race winner Stoner and 1.5secs from a podium.
"I'm very happy, it was a good race," smiled Randy. "For the first time in 17 rounds, I managed a good start and then I took Melandri by the first corner, holding third for a few laps. After that he passed me and I tried to stay with the leading group. I did make some small mistakes during the race but the gap between me and the others didn't change and towards the end I got within less than a second of Pedrosa. But then I had a few problems with stability under braking and decided to hold my place rather than push too hard and take any risks. The bike worked very well today and I'm so happy with this result."
But fortune did not smile on team-mate
Anthony West. Upon lining up for the start, the 26-year-old Australian incorrectly placed himself on a 250cc grid position, next to the
MotoGP spot. The Australian received a ride-through penalty for that mistake, forcing him to surrender fifth place.
"When I saw the ride through penalty on my pit board, I didn't know what it was for as I knew I hadn't jumped the start," said Ant. "I didn't know exactly what was wrong until I came back in at the end of the race."
West re-joined the race in 20th place and fought his way up to 15th at the finish, maintaining his run of scoring points at every round since he began racing in MotoGP in June.
"I made up a few places, even though I felt pretty flat after the ride through," he admitted. "I was really frustrated but then I saw I was catching up with some guys and kept on fighting although, to be honest, I didn't feel completely motivated and I'm sure that'll be reflected in my lap times. The weekend had been so fantastic before this so I'm gutted. I'll have to come back and take my revenge on Sepang next year."
Nevertheless, West's penalty wasn't enough to dampen the spirits of Kawasaki competition manager Michel Bartholemy.
"This weekend has been amazing," he declared. "We've had some great results over all three days, which is particularly pleasing because we had many problems when we debuted the 800cc machine during testing here at Sepang just 12 months ago. Somehow, this weekend has been pay back for us. We've seen the real potential of the bike, we've been in the top five all weekend, Randy finished in the top five and yes, Anthony made a mistake but, if that hadn't happened, I'm sure he could have finished sixth at least. Ultimately, the team and riders have shown what a competitive package we have now at Kawasaki."
