Hafizh Syahrin revs up to fourth place in Catalan GP

The Petronas talent development rider, who started from 13th position on the grid spent most parts of the 23-lap race battling with the frontrunners before he edged Thomas Luthi in the final lap to match his season’s best result in the opening round in Qatar in March.

Johann Zarco of France won the race in 42:31.347s followed by Alex Rins (Spain) in second place and Takaaki Nakagami (Japan) who made up the podium. The duo clocked 42’36.627s and 42’40.660s respectively.

"The bike was perfect and I could managed my race well. We were a bit concerned earlier on with the high track temperature but everything turned out well in the end.

"Thank you to Petronas and our other sponsors for believing in us. For sure we want to do better and we will continue to work hard," the Petronas Raceline Malaysia rider was quoted as saying in statement issued by Petronas.

Picking up 13 points from this leg, Hafizh moves up to fifth place in the Moto2 world championship standings with 60 points. Alex Rins leads the field with 116 points.

Meanwhile, team manager Barry Leong, who was pleased with the result, said Hafizh and the team did a great job for the weekend.

"Hafizh showed his composure to keep on pushing and fight until the end. It was a tense race all the way after he shot up to 5th at the first turn. Well done," he said.

Wildcard rider, Ramdan Rosli of Petronas AHM Malaysia just managed to finish in 19th place.