Sasaki 'living the dream' before reliability problems, 'very disappointed'
Ayumu Sasaki was left 'very disappointed' after losing out on a first Moto3 win at Qatar.
The Japanese rider stormed clear of the battle for second and seemed to be in a league of his own during the early stages.
In fact, it was shaping up to be as good a ride as anything we saw from the likes of Pedro Acosta, Dennis Foggia and Romano Fenati last season.
Initially, Sasaki came close to a highside on lap ten which loosened the left side of his fairing, however, the same mechanical issues as he suffered during Friday practice ultimately led to him retiring.
A gutted Sasaki said: "I am very disappointed. The team did a fantastic job and I did a great job, I felt good on the bike and I was enjoying all the moments until lap 9.
"The first ten laps went so quick, I was living the dream, because riding 1st in the GP is always a good feeling.
"I was steady, calm, but we had some issues with the bike, but that was no one’s fault. It was one unlucky thing that happened to us.
"This week maybe we had some bad luck because it happened already on Friday, but that had also nothing to do with us and the team.
"I feel sorry for the team, as well as for myself. We did a fantastic job I think. We can’t say it, but I think we were winning the race, so that’s a positive mindset, we have 20 races to go, and we have 20 races that we can do exactly the same things.
"We will travel fast and let’s see what we can do in the next race in Indonesia."
While it was a case of bad luck on Sasaki's side, team-mate John McPhee managed to secure a top five finish on his debut with the Sterilgarda Max Racing Team.
McPhee looked to be in contention for a podium before losing touch on the final lap.
"The fifth position is a really solid way to start the year," added McPhee. "I did not know how my setup was going to be across the race distance, as it was my first race with the Husqvarna bike.
"We managed to compose ourselves really well in the race and would have been perfect if I could attack just a little bit more, but I was feeling a little bit on the limit with our package at the moment.
"Overall I feel strong, we got good points for the championship and it was important to have these points to start the season in a good way.
"So a huge thank you to the team, because they work so hard all weekend to help me adapt more to the Husqvarna bike and to try to understand the way to ride this bike.
"For now I am really happy, we have some more progress that we can make and this is good because we keep on trying to make it better."
