Mystery power fault for Redding, unhappy with Miller
Scott Redding has explained how 'a disconnected feeling' with the throttle was at fault for his retirement from the MotoGP race in Argentina while sat in a promising sixth place.
Feeling no ill-effects from his lucky escape from a tyre failure on Saturday that altered the course of the rest of the weekend, Redding was also critical of Jack Miller's riding in the early laps, feeling it cost him valuable time as he attempted to bridge the gap to the leading group.
"I'm disappointed because we made a good race considering the problem we had," said the Englishman. "We made good of a bad weekend but it just wasn't enough. Something had to come and get us again which was quite annoying."
Starting well, Redding slipped to the lower points positions after a mistake at turn one on lap two but recovered well to sit behind Dani Pedrosa after the enforced bike swap.
It was after he effortlessly moved by the Spaniard to assume sixth place that the problem occurred, leaving him to rue a potential missed podium.
"The start was OK. Jack [Miller] fighting with you for no reason. That's why we lost the first guys originally. Then I went into turn one deep and got caught up with that crash with [Cal] Crutchlow and [Aleix] Espargaro and I was 17th or 18th. I managed to catch the group again.
"I made a great change. I think it was the second or third fastest in the pits. I was fast right out of the box. Pedrosa passed me but I think he only pulled three tenths on me on my out lap so it was really good in that area. I knew I was going to be faster, passed him and tried to make a gap. I was riding about 80 percent because there was too much of a gap in front to really do anything.
MotoGP Update | Technical problem for Scott Redding #ArgentinaGP #MotoGP race https://t.co/g9zW7iqQE7Posted by Peter McLaren on Sunday, April 3, 2016
"I went into turn one and there was nada. I tried to reboot the engine three times; off, on, off, on. I had to come to an end. There was an opportunity to take some good points. We were sixth at the time. With what happened I would have been third. But fifth or sixth is where it was. It was just one of those weekends. There was the incident with the tyre. Then a f**k up in FP3 so I didn't go through to Q2."
On a hectic first lap spent fighting with an ultra-aggressive Miller, Redding said he was sure Miller would be unable to complete the 20 laps in the style he was riding.
"He can put the bike where he wants but we're going to lose time on other guys. You go into T1, there's no line there and he's just driving into the side of you. I'm like, 'Dude, come on!' Then you brake into turn two and he's trying to go round the outside. Into three and he's there and he goes on the inside and you pass him back on the straight.
"Then he tries to come back up the inside of you at seven and by that point the leading guys have put eight tenths on you. I knew he wasn't going to finish the race. He was riding like a f**cking out of control lunatic and then he crashes again.
"I can help myself by not qualifying there. I just need to do it. I think when I qualify in the first three rows I'll be able to hold on to that front group easily. It's getting there is a bit frustrating because you try to recover, brake harder, make a mistake and recover again. It's just endless."
Argentina was another race in which Redding was unable to build on the promise he has shown throughout various points in the weekend, but the Englishman remained optimistic before travelling north to Austin.
"I don't really know what the problem was. It would have been nice for that to have happened in practice but we learnt something. The race wasn't bad until then. I caught and passed Dani, was the first satellite bike at the time, which was good. We have to look on to Texas. It's got to stop at some point!"
