KTM is a family. So much so that when victory comes, it is shared among everyone, with equal joy. At Tech3, we are happy to see its driver Miguel Oliveira finish in sixth place in a Grand Prix of the Czech Republic. However, it was another RC16 that won in Brno. Still, there is no room for frustration for boss Hervé Poncharal, who underlines two essential things: a historic day for KTM. And the demonstration that the Austrian motorcycle is now a winning machine…
Hervé Poncharal thus takes stock of Brno : " It's a historic day today, KTM won their first ever MotoGP race here in Brno, Czech Republic and although it's not my team it feels like it is. We work closely with KTM, I see how hard everyone is pushing, how strong the passion is everywhere. I said I work with a lot of other factories, but this one is very, very special and we have had bad luck recently, all of us and what happened today is truly an incredible story.
Congratulations to KTM, congratulations to Brad, sorry about Pol and Iker, but the main point is that the KTM RC16 is now a bike capable of winning and we had proof of that today. As for the Red Bull KTM Tech3 team, we were very happy with Iker and we were really hopeful that he could finally finish his first race, in the points. We could see that today was a good day to finish the race with the KTM having a few points up its sleeve, but unfortunately, once again the kid spoke and he was too aggressive too soon. We are sorry for what happened to Joan Mir, it was not necessary. I was happy with Iker until Sunday lunchtime, but this afternoon it was again what we didn't want to see. Hopefully we will see the end of this tunnel next lap at the KTM grounds in Spielberg”.
“KTM has a strong bike, KTM has four strong riders”
« What I mainly want to talk about is Miguel's performance. Unfortunately he was not able to place himself on the starting grid, as we expected, his start was not ideal and he had to fight with many drivers to progress in the peloton. Every time he was alone we could see that the lap time was very similar, if not identical to the leaders, but the handicap was there and there was never a way to close that gap. Regardless, it was as usual a fast and consistent Miguel, who overtook many riders in front of him to finishing in sixth place, which is his best finish to date, overtaking some very big names, even the championship leader.
So we have clearly seen that Miguel and the KTM RC16 are able to achieve what Brad Binder did today. KTM has a strong bike, KTM has four strong riders and we hope to continue writing this great story next week in Spielberg, Austria"
MotoGP Brno J3: standings
