Hervé Poncharal and his Tech3 KTM troops were delighted to return to a Portimao track which had been the field of victory only five months earlier, when it was then a question of closing the 2020 season. the demonstration with an untouchable Miguel Oliveira on his RC16. But things turn quickly in MotoGP and this new escapade in Portugal was not the same for the French equipped with Austrian motorcycles. However, they do not come back empty-handed, which is always better than the drought of results regretted twice in Qatar. The two drivers Petrucci and Lecuona indeed scored points.
Hervé Poncharal knows that this season will be more complicated than the previous one with the KTM. However, there are positive things to take away from this Portuguese Grand Prix, who saw for example Brad Binder enter the top 5 with the official RC16. Side Tech3, points were collected. “ You always have to find the good side of the whole weekend and the positive side is that we have our two guys, Danilo and Iker in the points, which are the first points of the season » comments the French boss.
However, he immediately adds: “ I know, we are quite far away, but still, there is a beginning. If we want to be completely objective, we are far away. Qualifying was difficult, the start of the race was difficult too »
He details: “ Danilo had, I think, a good choice of tires with the hard front and rear. He was the only one and we expected him to maybe be in better shape the last 10 rounds than the others. We could see him catching up with the guys in front of him, but not enough. He finished 0.176 behind Marini. I would still like to thank him for pushing as much as he can right now. It's still a learning process. We need to understand more and more how we can help him feel more comfortable and give him better sensations to push further. As I said, the first points, which is already an important step ».
Hervé Poncharal worries about Lecuona
« Iker, I would say, the only positive is that we got a point, but honestly I don't know what to say right now. I don't know what to say anymore and I think he doesn't know what to do anymore. When I remember Iker at the very beginning of last year, he was full of energy, sometimes making mistakes, but pushing. This year for some reason there's nothing working, there's no spark. So, yes, we got a point, but very, very far » worries Hervé Poncharal on his young wolf.
« We need to talk, we need to debrief. We have seen that KTM is competitive. Brad Binder finished fifth, I think 1,8 seconds behind P2, which is another good performance after Qatar. So clearly, the bike is there. We don't want to talk too much about technical things. We need to give our drivers a better feeling, we need to make them a little hungrier and hopefully that will happen in Jerez, which is the fourth round of the Championship. It's already the fourth round and everyone needs to wake up and push ". A clear message to meditate on until May 2 next, deadline for the Spanish Grand Prix…
MotoGP Portugal J3: classification
Credit classification motogp.com
