While their big sisters RC16 showed in Austria that they still had 2 seconds to gain to be at the level of the best, the “WP Ktm” also faced competition for the first time, in Brno, in the Czech Republic.
In the absence of Johann Zarco (on well-deserved vacation), Alex Rins (injured) and Sam Lowes (busy on his future Aprilia RS-GP at Zeltweg), the role of stallion therefore fell to Takaaki Nakagami, recent winner of the Moto2 category at Assen.
According to our sources, the Japanese driver achieved a race pace between 2'02.5 and 2'03.0, which is very slightly faster than Johann Zarco's pace during his victory last year (2'02.9 on average). This is explained by the use of a soft tire.
The fastest of the “WP-Ktm”, that of Ricard Cardus, achieved a race pace between 2'02.9 and 2'03.5… But with a hard tire !
This is very impressive and clearly shows that the bike is already at the level of the best.
Thus, Ktm continues to prove that a simple tubular chassis can be as efficient as a solid-machined frame... and undoubtedly much cheaper to produce!
A excellent news for Aki Ajo and Brad Binder who should use this equipment from next year.
For the record, Julian Simon was a little slower and suffered two small, minor falls.
