It’s just about taking a short breath in the beautiful mountains around the Red Bull Ring in Spielberg, Austria, this week, until Tech3 KTM Factory Racing and the entire MotoGP World Championship is back to racing, starting the Austrian Grand Prix on KTM home soil this Friday.

Following a rather tricky first round after the summer break, Danilo Petrucci and Iker Lecuona are very eager to improve on their results. While Petrucci aims to work on acceleration, Lecuona plans to refine his tyre consumption, but both Tech3 KTM Factory Racing riders together with their respective crews have some ideas on upgrading their performances in order to get closer to the top 10 this time.

Danilo Petrucci

Championship: 18^th

Points: 26

“We will have another chance to prove ourselves this week. We knew this track is one of the most challenging for us. We need to work more on the acceleration, even if we have been doing a pretty good job during this last weekend. But my weight and my size are limiting the progress a bit. Acceleration and stopping the bikes in really slow corners are our main focus at the moment, so we will try to work even more in order to reduce the wheelie and trying to make the corners as fast as possible. It’s going to be a tough mission, but we will try to score some points this time.”

Iker Lecuona

Championship: 21^st

Points: 14

“I think we need to work on the grip for this weekend, as we have been struggling quite a lot with that during the race. We did a very good race, but we still need to improve and continue to work. I’m pretty happy about my feeling on the bike, we just need to get better in some points and then I’m convinced we are there. We have to wait what the weather is going to do. In case it rains, we can for sure fight at the top. In the dry, we have a but more to do, but I think we can fight close to the top as well.”

Hervé Poncharal

Team Manager

“Just a couple of days off and then we start racing again here at the Red Bull Ring, which is a pleasure, because this is really a beautiful place with great facilities. Clearly, we were competitive last weekend, but the grid is so close, that the position doesn’t reflect the improvement in our two riders’ level and we are really determined and focused to try to find some small improvements, that will allow both, Danilo and Iker to fight for the top 10.”

“We know we can do it, as I said it’s difficult as the grid is so competitive and everybody is so close to each other. But this is the target. It’s home ground for KTM. Stefan Pierer and Hubert Trunkenpolz are here and it is very important for me to give them the reward of their support and to give them what they are expecting, so it’s going to be full on next week for the Austrian Grand Prix!”