Knocked off the track twice, yet still championship leader: Albert Arenas gritted his teeth

It’s astonishing how quickly Albert Arenas has adapted to the Supersport Yamaha after five years in Moto2. After finishing fourth in the season-opener at Phillip Island, the Spaniard secured his first victory in just the second race and has been a model of consistency ever since: the 29-year-old has racked up three wins and 14 top-three finishes in 18 races. The AS Racing rider has led the championship since Balaton Park in early May.

And Arenas has been particularly unlucky: on two occasions he was knocked off his bike by another rider. First at Most (Race 2) by Jaume Masià (Ducati) and last weekend at Magny-Cours (Race 1) by Jeremy Alcoba (Kawasaki). Fears that the Yamaha rider might have broken his hand were fortunately not confirmed.

“Everything seems to be fine with my hand, but we’ll carry out further tests. It was a heavy blow, but luckily nothing was broken and I was able to continue the weekend,” Arenas told SPEEDWEEK.com editor-in-chief Ivo Schützbach in the Magny-Cours paddock. “I was in quite a lot of pain. Easing off the brake slowly was the biggest problem. I was fine through the flowing first few corners, but after that it got tricky – somehow I managed it. That’s why I went into the second race with no expectations.”

Finishing second on the podium, Arenas managed to limit the damage considerably. However, that didn’t stop World Championship runner-up Valentin Debise (ZX Moto) from making up a fair number of points with two third-place finishes. Arenas came out of the summer break with an 82-point lead; he left France with 70 points.

The incident with Alcoba also lingered in Arenas’s mind. “It was probably impossible for anyone on the outside to gauge the forces at play during the crash. I was also surprised that the stewards classified the crash as a normal racing incident – I see it completely differently,” criticised the Spaniard. “I wasn’t happy with this situation, because we’re always striving to make riding safer and want to be more professional. On Saturday I’d said that something like this can happen, but on Sunday morning I was in pain all over.”

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