Syahrin secures second top ten of 2018 in Japan

Malaysian rider grabs top rookie honours at Motegi with P10 finish and continues to home in on Morbidelli in the Championship

Hafizh Syahrin (Monster Yamaha Tech 3) secured his second top ten finish of the year at the Motul Grand Prix of Japan, with a P10 result the best since crossing the line ninth at Round 2 of the season in Argentina.

Hafizh Syahrin, Monster Yamaha Tech 3, Motul Grand Prix of Japan

“Of course I’m happy to be in the top ten, I didn’t expect that I could arrive in the top ten but yeah when you work hard, never stop and try to keep pushing on track, this result will come,” began the Malaysian, who now has eight-point scoring finishes under his belt in his maiden MotoGP™ season.

The battle for Rookie of the Year honours is hotting up as we enter the last three races of 2018, with Syahrin now just four points behind Franco Morbidelli (EG 0,0 MarcVDS) in the overall standings after getting the better of the Italian in Thailand and Japan.

“Anyway, thank you to my team because we are really working hard to be in the top group, for example in Buriram race we are fighting really well in front of Franco,” explained the Yamaha rider, who admitted that he thought his Honda counterpart was further behind him: “But this time I thought Franco was 14 or something like this and I was 10, maybe we can gain something like this, gain some points, but we gain just one point in front of him but its ok. At least we were in front of him, we keep pushing and taking the challenge to him.”

So can Syahrin continue to chip away at Morbidelli’s advantage at the Australian GP, before we head to his home race in Malaysia? “Phillip Island is not the best track for me but I’ll keep working hard, in with a MotoGP™ (bike) it may be different, and we try to arrive at our home GP in good shape.” 

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