Kuala Lumpur, 21 October: In an exhausting race in tropical conditions, Honda LCR rider Carlos Checa finished fourteenth in today’s Malaysian Grand Prix at the Sepang Circuit. Checa engaged Shinya Nakano and Nobu Aoki in a close battle early in the race and he was 13th until lap 16, eventually finishing just 0.3s behind Aoki and ahead of Nakano and Anthony West in the 21 lap race.

Checa had started 16th after struggling to find the optimum set-up and front end grip on the newly resurfaced Sepang Circuit. He put in a maximum effort to score championship points in difficult conditions. The race was won by Casey Stoner before 37,400 spectators.

CHECA: Fourteenth - Championship: 14th/61 points

CHECA: “I knew this was going to be a difficult race but it was better than I expected and I did the maximum. During practice and qualifying I never found a good feeling with bike and set-up for this track but it was little better in the race and I was able to constant lap times. The best was 2’04.1 and our target was to get into high 2’03s so that was a little disappointing. Now I’m just looking ahead to the final race of the season in Valencia in Spain.”

In the 250cc Grand Prix, Eugene Laverty made a lightning start from 20th but was unable to match the speed of his factory rivals and finished 17th with a strong rookie performance.

LAVERTY: “I made good start and was up to 12th on lap one but I was having problems on the brakes with full fuel tanks and ran wide. Against the factory bikes it was impossible to hold the slipstream, but I’m happy with the result, I just did not have the pace to catch Wilairot at the end.”