Emotional last race for Adam
Moto3 rider Adam Norrodin bade an emotional farewell to the home crowd after finishing 23rd despite a heroic effort at the Shell Malaysia Motorcycle Grand Prix yesterday.
The Petronas Sprinta Racing rider, who qualified 18th, was forced to start from the pit lane at the Sepang Circuit as Race Direction, in a late decision last night, penalised him for slow riding during qualifying.
Adam made a strong start and worked his way up from 28th to 13th before crashing with two laps to go after clashing with former teammate Jakub Korfeil (Redox PruestelGP) of Czech Republic.
The Johor-born rider however, remounted his bike and ended the race in 23rd, crossing the line one minute and 37.387s behind race winner Jorge Martin (Del Conca Gresini). Teammate Ayumu Sasaki placed 18th (+13.843s).
Adam, who will be competing in the CEV Moto2 Championships next year, was in tears after the race as he battled both physical and emotional pain.
The 20-year-old was racing with a left shoulder which was broken in two places and a torn anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee.
“I am grateful to have been given the strength to race today, honestly I was exhausted, yesterday (qualifying) was a really tough day,” said an emotional Adam.
“I gave it my all today as this is my last race here and my last Moto3 race.”
Adam refused to blame Kornfeil, who raced for SIC in the 20152016 seasons, for the crash.
Despite earlier plans to hold off surgery until the end of the season, Adam will be going under the surgeon’s knife next week and will miss the season-ending Valencia round later this month.
Martin’s victory secured the Spaniard the Moto3 world championship title ahead of main rival Marco Bezzecchi (Redox PruestelGP) who finished the race fifth (+4.905s).
The championship title was also decided in Moto2. Italian Luca Marini (SKY Racing Team VR46) won the race in 38:25.689s.
But the title went to compatriot and teammate Francesco Bagnaia for whom third (+3.020s) was enough for the day despite main title rival Miguel Oliviera (Red Bull KTM Ajo) of Portugal finishing ahead in second (+3.020s.).
Khairul Idham Pawi (Idemitsu Honda Team Asia) finished out of the points in 17th (+28.802s) while Petronas Sprinta Racing rider Niki Tuuli of Finland crashed out of the race.