Avintia Racing fill-in rider hangs on for 15th position at home.
‘Mad’ Mike Jones is celebrating his first-career point in the MotoGP World Championship after charging to 15th place in today’s Michelin Australian Motorcycle Grand Prix.
The 22-year-old, who captured the Australian Superbike Championship last year, impressed immensely in his second appearance for Avintia Racing aboard the GP14.2.
Jones pushed throughout the 27-lap race at Phillip Island this afternoon to cross the line for a single point, trailing highly-regarded Aspar Ducati satellite regular Eugene Laverty by just 1.5s at race’s end and ahead of 2014 Moto2 champion Tito Rabat.
“It is an incredible feeling to get my first world championship point in MotoGP, especially here at Phillip Island, my home track and in front of my home crowd,” Jones beamed. “I’m very, very happy and very excited – it was a really great race for me.
“I made a big improvement in comparison to Motegi, I got a much better start and I got away with the guys at the back of the field. All in all, I was able to gain a lot more experience and improve as a rider on this bike.
“On Friday and Saturday, it was difficult due to the mixed conditions and today really was the only dry day, so I just got 30 minutes in the warm-up to get ready for a dry race.
“It was difficult, but thanks to everybody in Avintia Racing and especially my crew, I was able to learn quick and adapt to the bike. This weekend has been good and all I can say is thank you!”.
Further cementing his potential, Jones’ fastest laptime in the race of 1m31.663s was quicker than MotoGP regulars Laverty, Yonny Hernandez (Aspar Ducati) and Rabat. It was just 2.169s slower than that set by race winner Cal Crutchlow (LCR Honda).
Avintia Racing has confirmed Hector Barbera will return to the team next weekend at Sepang in Malaysia, when Andrea Iannone comes back into the factory Ducati Team after missing the first two fly-aways in Japan and Australia.