In QatarScot Racing Team MotoGP's Yuki Takahashi scored a point in his MotoGP debut.
The former 250cc campaigner treated his first race like a master class, learning from the rest of the more experienced field.
Mostly he learned about dealing with the front
end and braking in what was his longest ever ride on a GP machine.
In his MotoGP debut, Yuki Takahashi finished 15th and said: "The best came at the end, when I had a chance to follow Marco Melandri for a long while. I studied him, and I got a lot of information about how to deal with the front tyre and about braking points. Don't forget that this is my first race in the MotoGP class. Not only that, but I never did a long run before. I'm satisfied. My target was learning the bike and how to compete against the best riders in the world. How to deal in the heat of the first laps, and strategies, and tactics. At the beginning I lost a little time, but I did not want to make any silly mistake.
And at the end I was able to keep the same pace of the riders who were in the first groups. And now, let's prepare for my home race, in 13 days, in Japan."