The MotoGP World Championship made its return to Termas de Río Hondo for the first time since the COVID-19 outbreak, and the show went on on sunny Sunday in front of an Argentinian crowd eager to watch world class MotoGP riders battle it out during 25 laps on the beautiful 4.806 km layout featuring 14 corners, 9 right and 5 left and an incredible straight of 1076 m. To make up with the time loss from Friday’s cancellation, Raul Fernandez and Remy Gardner, alongside the rest of the class, got an extended warm up session (40 min) to make their final adjustements before the start of the race, at 15:00 (GMT-3).

After a progressive weekend during which he was able to improve as the session went on, Spanish rookie Raul Fernandez was starting his third MotoGP race from the twenty-first position on the grid. This morning, he took the integrality of the 40 minutes allocated to the warm up session to work on his race pace, one that he seemed confident about at the end of qualifying day. When the lights went out kicking off Round 3 of the 2022 season, Raul made a great start and approached well the first corner, negociating a couple of places to find himself behind the likes of Jack Miller. For the first couple of laps, he maintained his pace to stay close to his group, but a small error caused him to lose the contact with the front guys. He quickly recovered, refocused and was able to race with consistency throughout the entire race. He finished in P16, so close to his first MotoGP points, and will now be heading to the Red Bull Grand Prix of the Americas with the determination to finish in the Top 15.

Behind him in P22 on the grid, there was Australian Remy Gardner, eager to be able to race again at Termas de Río Hondo, one of his favorite tracks of the calendar. Despite his crash during Free Practice 2 which caused him a slight loss of confidence, today was a new day for the rookie who also worked the entire 40 min of the warm up session this morning. At the start of the race, Remy made a great start and managed to negociate some key overtakes, placing him close to the Top 15 within the first laps of the 25. The Australian showed stability and consistency during the entire race as he registered similar times every time he was passing the line. He ends the Gran Premio Michelin® de la República Argentina in P17, just behind his spanish teammate.

Both riders from the Tech3 KTM Factory Racing team did not finish in the points, but they both raced smartly for their third race in the class. It is an other 25 laps of experience and learnings in the bag that we will take to Austin for Round 4 of the 2022 MotoGP season, in just one week-time, on Sunday, April 10.

Raul Fernandez

Position: 16th

Championship: 23rd

Points: 0

"Today I had an amazing start to the race, especially a great first curve. Then when I saw Miguel (Oliveira), I told myself that I had to stay with him in order to learn from him and our bikes. The first part of the race, I did some mistakes that cost me a loss of time, and towards laps 6-7, I took a deep breathe and tried to remain calm, focus, and continue with the pace I had, and give it my all. Today, I learned how to do a MotoGP race, I did a clever race, and I am very happy about it, and with the work that the team did. Thank you to them. We must not forget that it is also only my second race here in Argentina, so if you weight everything together, I am very happy."

Remy Gardner

Position: 17th

Championship: 22nd

Points: 1

"I did enjoy the first part of the race, I stayed close to the group and had some nice battles with a couple of riders. I struggled more during the second half unfortunately. I am feeling my progress, but everyone is improving too, so I have to stay positive and continue to work for myself and learn the bike. I take each race one by one and don’t look too far. I enjoy a lot Termas de Rio Hondo, I have always had good results, so I thought today might have been the turning point for me, but it was not unfortunately so it is a bit tough to accept. I stay positive, and results will come."

Hervé Poncharal

Team Manager

"We were finally able to race here in Argentina and I have to admit that it was a great show. It is only our third race with Raul and Remy in the MotoGP class. We have a 25-second gap with the winner, which is basically 1 second per lap, and it is clearly the smallest gap we have had since the start of the season.

They were both able to have good battles with much more experienced riders. We obviously did not have good grid positions, so we were not expecting for Top 10 positions, but we were dreaming to score a point at least. Raul finished in P16, which is so close to the goal, but anyway I am happy with the race.

Both riders did a great job, they pushed all weekend long because it was a tough one with the change of schedule. Now it is time to head to Austin in Texas for the last of the four races overseas, and  take even more race experience. Raul and Remy will arrive in Europe with four difficult races under their belts, so I am sure that the season will really start in Portimao for us.

Thank you to the riders, and a special thank you to the entire crew. With the delay of the freight, they did not get much sleep, did not eat at lot, and worked all night from Friday to Saturday to make sure that the show was able to go on. Without them, this race would not have been possible, so I want to thank them all. Let’s go to Texas!"