The meeting at the Sachsenring did not go as hoped for Herve Poncharal's men. Leaving Barcelona after a day of testing following the Catalan Grand Prix with the assurance of being able to benefit from the new KTM chassis, the Tech3 troops were looking forward to the German stage with eagerness. With this equipment, in fact, Miguel Oliveira had just won in Montmélo. The idea was therefore to get as close as possible to the person who was in their ranks a year ago. Furthermore, Lecuona and Petrucci had to convince to ensure a possible future in MotoGP. But nothing really went well, with even some serious tensions that the boss will have to calm down...
We would undoubtedly have liked another assessment at Tech3 that this German Grand Prix synonymous with zero harvest in terms of points. Furthermore, it is certainly not with a 17th place and an abandonment due to a fall that lecuona et Petrucci will respectively convince of their usefulness to the project KTM and their potential to continue in MotoGP. So many disappointments with quite serious possible consequences which did not relax the atmosphere when it came time to take stock.
Moreover, Petrucci, already very angry at the end of qualifying, set the tone by castigating his teammate lecuona : " I'm really sorry, because we were strong all weekend. We had a good start and in this race it was about managing the rear tire. Unfortunately, Iker started to pass me and be very aggressive. He braked very hard in a corner and Alex Marquez followed his example and he fell and I fell with Marquez. I have no words, we have no points for the team. I am very angry, but above all very sorry ».
Enough to give the Spaniard heartburn, and indeed, he had some. But not because of his teammate’s words… “ During the Warm Up, we had a lot of trouble because we tried something that didn't work. For the race we went back to what we had before and I felt confident. I was in positions to score points, but halfway through the race I felt sick. I don't know if I ate something bad yesterday, but I had stomach problems and felt bad. It was hard to keep up and I had no energy. I was pushing a lot with my knees and elbows, but I still tried to finish the race in a decent position, but it was honestly very hard. I want to apologize to my team, because I know we could have fought for the points. But we will come back stronger in Assen ».
Hervé Poncharal: “honestly, I’m not particularly happy”
And what does the boss say? “ It was a really tough weekend for the Tech3 KTM Factory Racing team here in Germany " recognize Hervé Poncharal. “ We got off to a very good start on Friday with Danilo showing great improvement and taking full advantage of the new chassis. Qualifying was tough as we weren't able to do the lap time we wanted to do and unfortunately we were very far back on the grid again ».
« Danilo got off to a good start and we were aiming for a top 10 result here. I think it was a possibility, when you see what Miguel and Brad did. But unfortunately our two guys, Danilo and Iker fought together and overtook each other almost at every turn, losing time and ground. At the end, there was a very unfortunate incident, once again with Alex Marquez and his race was over before it even really began ».
« All the attention of the team was therefore focused on Iker, who was having a pretty good race, which means being in the points. But unfortunately, for some reasons, he wasn't really feeling well physically. He was exhausted and he couldn't stop everyone from passing him, which was a shame. I think here we clearly had the technical package from KTM to fight for a strong position. We waited for the Sachsenring with great ambitions, and we came out with zero points ».
« Honestly, I'm not particularly happy. It's just frustrating for the whole team and also disappointing to not give KTM what they deserve, supporting us as they support us and showing the great pace that they show up front with the two guys from the factory. So, let's hope Assen will be the turning point in the first part of the season ».
MotoGP Germany J3: ranking
Credit classification motogp.com
