The Tech3 team brought some comfort to the KTM factory without its leader Pol Espargaró, who was withdrawn due to injury. Miguel Oliveira's thirteenth place is indeed significant. The Portuguese is still suffering from his crumpled shoulder since Silverstone and his performance was well worth a top 10. A performance praised by boss Hervé Poncharal who cares about his Portuguese driver...
The circumstances that we know have placed
Miguel Oliveira as project leader
KTM on the track. And the Portuguese showed in
Aragon that he could hold this new charge. Something to delight his current boss
Hervé Poncharal and who wants to stay that way… “ I want to congratulate Miguel on a good race, because he was part of a very strong group with a Ducati factory, a Honda factory and an Aprilia factory and we could see that these guys were fighting each other. The only thing is I think we had the pace to be 10th. Unfortunately, we never managed to overtake Petrucci, who was clearly slowing us down and allowing the other drivers to catch up. In the end it doesn't make a big difference, but I definitely think we had better pace than our final position. »
“Anyway, let's take the positives: Miguel is still not back to 100% because of his shoulder. It's a big improvement from last week in Misano, so let's hope he'll be 100% fit in Thailand. We are happy to see Miguel fighting like this. I think this weekend was pretty positive. »
“On the other side, I was excited to see Hafizh fight against Lorenzo, Smith and Abraham. It was a good fight, he was in front of them, there were two or three laps to go and unfortunately he made a big mistake and ended up at the back of the group, which was a shame. Nothing is working with Hafizh at the moment, he should have been in front of this group. We can only continue to support him, show him our devotion and give him as much support as possible, but nothing really works. I'm sorry and a little disappointed about this. »
“Anyway, the next race will be closer to home, so hopefully that will give him a boost.” We now have a big job to pack everything here in Aragón, to ship all the cargo for the four round-trip flights, which is a difficult mission. Once that's done, relax for a few days and enjoy Thailand! »