With some trouble following a rain shower the ninth MotoGP round got ahead a bit later today with a shortened distance of 20 laps on a drying track, where the entire field headed out with slick tyres.
Red Bull KTM Tech3’s Miguel Oliveira came off the line in a decent way from P16 and was 14th by the end of the first lap. He fought hard to keep up his good speed and eventually saw the chequered flag in 13th, bringing home three more championships points on his rookie account.
Meanwhile Hafizh Syahrin lost some ground when the red lights went off, but either way came across the line in 19th after the first lap. He showed a great pace and passed a handful of contenders until he reached the points scoring positions after just five laps, but unfortunately lost the front in the seventh lap and finish his race prematurely.
Miguel Oliveira
Position: 13th
Championship: 18th
Points: 18
"It was a nice race. Difficult for everyone, especially to manage the grip of the rear tyre. Finally, we managed to do a good race. The pace was the best I could do. 13th position for sure is not what we deserved today. We did a great job, after having only one day of practice in the dry, the team gave me a nice bike to ride in the race, so I’m really happy for that. The gap to the first is not so big, it’s the second-best gap that we had all season. We are definitely on a line of improvement and we just need to keep working like this."
Hafizh Syahrin
Position: DNF
Championship: 25th
Points: 3
"I’m very disappointed. It was a really good race. I felt confident and I was one of the only three riders to choose the hard tyre in front, but for some reason we suddenly lost the front. Plus, the start was strange. I tried to put in the launch control, but it was not working and also the dash board was a bit confused, so I needed to start without launch control, which was very difficult for me. But on the first lap I was really strong and on the second one, I caught back up with the group. I arrived in 15th and knew I would be able to pass Aleix (Esparargo), but first I tried to stay with Maverick (Viñales) and to pull away a little bit and then the crash happened. That’s racing, I feel sorry for everyone. Now we focus on our test tomorrow and try to come back strong for KTM’s home GP."
Hervé Poncharal
Team Manager
"It was a good end of the weekend for the Red Bull KTM Tech3 MotoGP team. It was a bit long to wait due to the shower we had just before we went to the grid, but I definitely think it was the right decision from race direction to delay the start. In the end, we had a great race, a real race with good track conditions and everybody pushing to the limit, which is what everybody wants to see for a MotoGP race. Regarding our riders, we had an ok start with Miguel and Hafizh did not have such a good start, but the first three, four laps he was flying. We were really proud of him. Then the race started to build up, we could see that Miguel was quick and consistent and Hafizh was doing very similar lap times, so we were hoping for a strong team result. Unfortunately, Hafizh made a slight mistake, which is very unfortunate, very sad and very upsetting for me, because I would have liked my two boys in the points and there was clearly a possibility for that today. For sure, this could have been the best race for Hafizh so far. I told him earlier ‘You need to see the flag!’ and it was too early for him to crash. We are at round ten and we need to understand and learn and it seems we didn’t learn too much from that side. On Miguel’s side, great race, great race. The last five, six laps were very difficult, I think as most of the field, the rear tyre dropped a lot. But I think we did the right tyre choice, we had the right setting. We saw that our pace was very close to Viñales and Bagnaia and in the end, we were not so far down from Pol. Now we are happy, it’s a positive result. Miguel is doing a great job, his crew is working well. We have an important test tomorrow and a more important race next week on Red Bull KTM home soil. Still, there is another tough day tomorrow, but we are on the right path. I think we started the second part of the year on a positive note, so ‘Good job Miguel! Hafizh, you know now that you can believe in yourself and in your package, but see the chequered flag in Austria!’ Thanks to everyone!"
