Qatar MotoGP – KTM: "Sooner or later, we will be in the points"

Pol Espargaro and Bradley Smith, the two riders of the official KTM team riding the RC16 which competed in its very first MotoGP race on Sunday in Qatar, finished in 16th and 17th places out of 18, more than 30 seconds behind the leader. A significant margin of improvement which does not discourage the Austrian manufacturer. Explanations.

The 16th and 17th places of the two official KTM riders, the Spaniard Pol Espargaro and the British Bradley Smith, on Sunday evening, the first race of, represent "a new important milestone in our progress," said the Austrian manufacturer, stressing that its very new RC16 only benefited from a "relatively short" development program.

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Pol Espargaro, Red Bull KTM Factory Racing (penultimate on the grid and 16th in the race) : "We always want more, but it was the first race and we needed to know where we were. You have to understand that the 33 seconds that separate us from the best time are positive. Honestly, we have to be satisfied because we worked well and it’s a difficult circuit for us. During the offseason we shot on other circuits and this one was the hardest ".

Bradley Smith, Red Bull KTM Factory Racing (last on the grid and 17th in the race) : "The lap times and the gaps on the leaders are better than what we expected. With these weather conditions, we saw several drivers make mistakes so we are very happy with what we were able to achieve today. ‘hui. In general, we gave our maximum. A big thank you to KTM and we will see what happens in Argentina ".

"A historic moment for KTM"

Note also that during this first weekend of the season, Smith improved his race time (1’57.365) compared to free practice (1: 57.654). But above all, KTM engineers have collected valuable data on the behavior of the two motorcycles during the duration of a race, which they will be able to study in order to advance the RC16 as the 2017 calendar progresses … and can -being from next weekend for the Argentinian GP ?

"This is a historic moment for the brand," said Pit Beirer, director of KTM Motorsport: "today we are in the three classes (Moto3, Moto2 and MotoGP, Editor’s note). This team is incredible. We’ve been together for a very short time, we started from scratch and everyone did a fantastic job ".

The team manager, Mike Leitner, is also "super happy" with this first race. "It was very important for both riders to finish. We didn’t have any technical problems, which is very positive, and the lap times were much better than we thought. We can only give our maximum and if everyone respects the schedule, sooner or later we will be in the points ".

The KTM team will now have to deal with the next two circuits of, on which the RC16 has never run: Termas de Río Hondo in Argentina on April 9 and the Circuit of the Americas in Texas on April 23 … To be continued naturally on MNC: stay connected !

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