Launching the Austrian Grand Prix from 16th, Tech3 KTM Factory Racing’s Iker Lecuona had a strong start off the line to be 11th at the end of the first lap already. He kept a steady pace until it started to rain with just a few laps left. While some riders went to their garages to change to rain tyres, the Spaniard stayed outside bravely and was even fighting for the podium on the last lap. Yet, he was passed by a few contenders with rain tyres towards the end of the race, but still finished in sixth, which is his personal best result in the premier class so far.
At the same time, Danilo Petrucci struggled to get up to speed quickly, but went stronger in the course of the race. Unfortunately, he had already lost contact to the group in front of him by then and was in lonely 18th. When the rain set in over the Red Bull Ring, the Italian decided as well not to change bikes, bit his teeth and stayed on the wet track with slicks. AS a reward he eventually crossed the line in P12, which earned him four points in the championship.
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Iker Lecuona
Position: 6th
Championship: 21st
Points: 24
“Obviously, I’m really happy, as this was my best MotoGP result so far. It was a crazy race. This morning, I struggled a little bit with the bike again and also during that first part of the race. I felt the grip was dropping a lot, which helped me to decide that I stay on the track when it started to rain. The gap was very huge to recover in five laps, so I thought I have nothing to lose, I stayed on the track, had a good fight with some riders. I lost the podium in the last sector, but it wasn’t possible with the slicks. I’m very happy and want to thank my team, that always worked well again during this weekend. Also a huge thank you to all the people, who believe in me, especially to my family.”
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Danilo Petrucci
Position: 12th
Championship: 18th
Points: 30
“It was. Very difficult race. Especially at the beginning the bike just felt different compared to always. I had no chance to stop the bike, I was really slow and didn’t have this pace all the weekend. It was very tough for me. I’m not sure what the reason for this has been, but it was very tricky for me to be fast. Then the rain came and I just wanted to stay on the bike and try to see the flag. At least, we scored some points, but I’m quite disappointed about the first part of the race, because I was so slow on the dry and we have to understand why.”
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Hervé Poncharal
Team Manager
“What a race! We knew on the starting grid, that a shower might come, but although there were a few drops on the grid, we couldn’t see the rain coming and with 10 laps to go, I thought, ok it’s going to be a dry race. Then a few drops and more and more and it changed the course of the race completely. The top guys pit in for changing to wet tyres and a few guys, including race winner Brad Binder and our both riders, Iker and Danilo stayed on track with slicks, which was a brave move as we were on the hard front compound. But nevertheless, they kept their heads down.”
“I want to say huge congratulations to Brad Binder and KTM to have won here one more time. But just before the last partial of the last lap, there would have been two KTMs on the podium and the second one would have been Iker. Unfortunately, the guys on wet tyres managed up to catch him and we ended up sixth, which is a great position, a great result, but for sure when you see the scenario of that race you feel a bit frustrated.”
“But let’s take the positives; KTM got a good result, Iker got sixth, Danilo managed to score a few points by finishing 12th, so altogether that was a great weekend for KTM and Tech3 KTM Factory Racing. We definitely feel good and love racing in Spielberg, Austria!”
