Hakim Danish Competes Fiercely at Catalunya GP

The country’s young rider is close to reaching the Moto3 podium after an excellent performance with the front group at the Barcelona-Catalunya Circuit.

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Hakim Danish Ramli showed quite an impressive performance when he managed to finish the race in seventh place overall at the Catalunya GP, thus proving his ability to compete with the front group in the Moto3 competition.

The AEON Credit-MT Helmets-MSI team rider performed consistently throughout the race weekend at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya. Starting from 10th place, Hakim Danish didn’t wait long to accelerate aggressively as soon as the race started before starting to put pressure on the leading group.

Almost achieved his first Moto3 podium

Throughout the 18 laps of the race, the Terengganu-born rider managed to improve his position several times and was once in second place when the competition was getting fiercer up front.

The position changes that took place at almost every corner made this Moto3 race quite dramatic, but Hakim Danish remained calm and consistently remained in the top five until entering the final five laps. In fact, he managed to finish third and looked to have a great chance of securing his first podium in the Moto3 world championship.

However, a small mistake on the final lap at turn 10 caused Hakim Danish to slightly drift off the racing line. This opportunity was used by four other riders to overtake him, forcing him to finish the race in seventh place.

Despite missing out on the podium, Hakim Danish still took home nine valuable points thanks to his solid performance throughout the race week in Catalunya.

Excellent performance since training session

Hakim’s impressive performance has actually begun to be evident since the free practice session on Friday when he recorded the fastest time of 1 minute 46.943 seconds, beating several home riders including Adrian Fernandez and David Almansa.

This record secured an automatic slot into the second qualifying session (Q2). However, in the actual qualifying session, Hakim Danish only recorded the 10th fastest time to start the race.

With an additional nine points in Catalunya, Hakim Danish now has a total of 27 points after six rounds of racing this season.

Hakim Danish considers Catalunya the best experience

Commenting on the race, Hakim Danish admitted that he learned many new things, especially how to manage the race with the front group.

“Today I finished the race in seventh position and I started pretty well on the starting grid. Throughout the race, I tried to control my position to stay competitive with the leading group.”

“I managed to overtake the riders in front a few times and I learned a lot of new things this time, especially how they control the race up front.”

“From now on, I need to be more aggressive especially when I’m in the leading group, whether it’s overtaking or maintaining race pace. This is the best experience for me.”

“On the last lap, I almost got on the podium, but unfortunately I braked too much at turn 10. I took this Catalunya GP as a useful learning experience and I will continue to work hard to reach the podium one day,” he said.

Zulfahmi Khairuddin praises Hakim Danish’s improvement

Meanwhile, SIC Racing Team Manager, Zulfahmi Khairuddin also praised the performance displayed by the country’s young racer throughout the race weekend.

According to him, Hakim Danish not only showed speed, but also increasingly understood how to compete competitively with the world’s best racers.

“Overall, I am very happy with the performance shown by Hakim Danish throughout this week. He not only showed speed, but also learned a lot about how to manage the race and compete in the front group.

“Of course it was a little disappointing when he almost got on the podium, but those small mistakes are part of the learning process.”

“Most importantly, his confidence is growing and I believe he has the ability to compete for the podium if he continues to work hard and maintain his performance like in Catalunya,” he explained.

After a positive performance at the Catalunya GP, Hakim Danish will now shift his focus to face the next round at the Italian GP which is scheduled to take place at the Mugello Circuit from 29th to 31st May.