Kent: This kind of thing can happen
Danny Kent refused to be downcast after Sunday's dramatic Moto3 encounter, in which he was on course to extend his championship lead by at least 16 points until an uncharacteristic last corner fall.
The championship leader produced a bullish performance, riding with the aggression that showed race results were at the forefront of his mind, rather than maintaining his sizeable 55-point championship advantage.
Chief adversary Enea Bastianini's final lap collision with Brad Binder handed Kent what looked to be a chance to cement his place as Britain's first grand prix world champion since 1977 but the 21-year instead chose to engage in a final corner scrap with Jorge Navarro for second.
"We've still got a 55 point lead and now it's four races remaining," said a surprisingly upbeat Kent after the race, opting to focus on his championship lead than the result of the final corner.
"We calculated before the race that we could lose ten points a race so now we've got a bigger cushion to Bastianini. It's obviously a bit frustrating because that could have been a guaranteed third position but this is a part of racing. We were very strong today and it's good to see the progress that we've made because we started the weekend struggling on the front end and by the race we were one of the strongest on the brakes. The team did an amazing job to help me build my confidence for the race so I'm happy with the race and we did really well. Overall I think that everybody can be happy.
"This kind of last lap can happen in any race in Moto3. I was trying to use the slipstream but then I saw Bastianini go underneath and he was struggling to stop and he clipped the back wheel of Binder. I didn't take a massive risk to try and pass Navarro on the last lap because his corner speed wasn't as fast in the last corner and as I looked over to him the rear came around from underneath me and it threw me off. The main thing is that I've got no injuries and I'm fit and healthy for the last four races.
"I wasn't on the limit when I was trying to pass Navarro because his corner speed wasn't that impressive at that corner so I wasn't trying to take a big risk. I didn't think that I was taking a big risk and the rear just stepped out and I crashed. It's all part of racing. I was a bit tighter on the last lap to get inside of Navarro but the line didn't cause the crash, I was basically just carrying too much corner speed with too much lean and the rear stepped out.
"My goal today was to finish in front of Bastianini. We were struggling a little bit on acceleration today but we could gain what we lost there on top speed today. Today thought we were really strong under braking and I could dive back past people when they overtook me. I'm really happy with the bike for this race and that I could show how strong we could be."
Despite suffering his first race crash of the season and only his second non-score, Kent maintained he felt more at ease than he would have if he had trailed Bastianini, yet stood on the podium, come the chequered flag.
"I'd have been much more disappointed if Bastianini had won and I'd finished second than this result. I've not lost any points and it's a 55 points lead with four races to go. I'll sit down with the team and talk about the coming races but I really enjoy Japan and I'd love to win there because it would be great to win for Honda. We'll focus on the next four races.
"These types of crashes can happen in every race in Moto3. It's so close and I don't know how many times we dived underneath each other so this could have happened earlier in the race. We're all at the maximum to finish on the podium so this can happen in racing."
