This time, it's done ! The French Tech3 team led by its leader Hervé Poncharal lived with a lack which, unconsciously, weighed. Marc VDS had done it with Jack Miller, LCR had made it happen with Cal Crutchlow, and the Petronas team, by taking over its Yamaha, had also achieved it with Fabio Quartararo. But at Tech3, no trophies in MotoGP. The 250 title was starting to date. And then arrived this Sunday in Syria with Miguel Oliveira as a cunning, cold-blooded predator...
At KTM, there are four bikes and half of the riders have already won this year. Brad Binder opened the scoring Brno et Miguel Oliveira doubled the stakes this Sunday, at the Styrian Grand Prix at the Red Bull Ring. This to the nose and beard of Pol Espargaro who was less intelligent. Since we won't ask the rookie lecuona to win one, Pol Espargaro is the only pilot KTM not having won with an RC16 that he nevertheless says he built…
But let's come back Tech3. Before this historic race for the team, the boss Hervé Poncharal his morale was low and he was thinking about his reconversion... The Frenchman tells the rest: “ what an incredible day, what incredible emotions! We've been in this business for something like 40 years and we've never won a MotoGP race. Honestly, I thought this would never happen and today our dream came true. Here in Austria, in front of our title sponsor Red Bull, in front of the management of KTM, our manufacturer.
“This morning I told myself that maybe it was time for me to give up”
To be honest, this morning I was so depressed when I saw my two Moto3 riders, who collided, on their way to a podium and I thought maybe it was time for me to give up, because when you're deeply involved, I was really, really sad.
And now I'm almost the happiest man in the world. Only running can give you these up and down emotions. I would of course like to thank Red Bull, thank KTM, without whom all this would have been impossible. I would also like to dedicate this victory to Miguel, because he pushed a lot. The first year was not easy, he got injured in the second half of the season. We have been fast since the beginning of this year, the bike has improved, he has improved, but we never got to really show it because of some racing circumstances and I knew he could do it .
Now we have done it. I am very proud to see two KTMs on the podium. It's clear that this is now one of the bikes to beat. We did an incredible job with the factory, the engineers, the test team with Dani Pedrosa, for sure four drivers helped a lot and of course I would like to thank Stefan Pierer, Hubert Trunkenpolz, Pit Beirer, Mike Leitner, Jens Hainbach, without whom it would have been impossible. It's not just the fact that we won, we won with these people behind us and it's an incredible group.
I have worked with different manufacturers, but this one is more than special. They said they were ready to race and that is not just a slogan, but reality. There is such involvement, such passion for racing and it's contagious, so let's celebrate tonight, hopefully there will be more exciting days like today, but today I want to thank Miguel, Iker, who had a great race too. I want to congratulate him too, because it's also incredible, what he has done so far as a beginner. He's growing up like I didn't expect.
Thank you to the whole team, to all the teams, Moto3, communication department, thank you everyone! We are going home to rest and we are motivated to do something great in Italy ". Return to the track on September 11 at Misano !
MotoGP Austria 2 J3: classification
