Three days of wind, varying temperatures and more development workwith the KTM RC16 at the Losail International Circuit did not blow-in the results Red Bull KTM Factory Racing were expecting for the first round of nineteen in 2018 MotoGP. Pol Espargaro briefly put aside his technical issues from Saturday qualification to push up from a grid spot of 22nd and battle for 13th place with countryman Alvaro Bautista and within sight of the leading groups of the 22 lap affair. Sadly his designs on a slot near the top ten were dashed on lap 15 with a recurrence of the electronic ‘gremlin’ that curtailed his efforts in Saturday’s Q1.

Bradley Smith rallied to the edge of the points-scoring positions but front tyre fade just ten circulations into the race meant that the Brit had to slow his pace and made it to the finish line in 18th spot.

Bradley Smith:

“I was really happy with the start of the race; I was aggressive and I made up some positions. I was in the mix and inside the points. For the first ten laps everything was working quite well and then I started to struggle with the front tyre and a lot of understeer and this was not something we had in any of the tests. The lap-times slowly dropped off. There were some corners where I was OK and others where I was just losing time. It was frustrating because I put myself in a good position to push along with the front guys. It was good to know more about where the KTM needs to improve by being with the other guys on track.”

Pol Espargaro:

“During the race I felt quite OK. I was fighting for thirteenth position with (Alvaro) Bautista and less than twenty seconds from the top guys. Seeing how the whole weekend went and what we could do towards the end then it was not too bad. Again the problem we had on Saturday put us out of the points and out of the race. I think it is just bad luck. I’m completely sure we’ll get this fixed and start again in Argentina.”

Mike Leitner (Team Manager MotoGP):

“It was positive that when Pol stopped he was just thirteen seconds away from the leader but of course it is a negative point that we couldn’t fix the issue we struggled with in qualifying yesterday. For sure it was a minor thing on the electronic side. Pol did five-six laps for the first time and this is something he couldn’t do in the winter test. When he will be back strong then we know we’ll be more competitive. Bradley was feeling good in the beginning of the race but when the front tyre dropped he lost the rhythm and this is something that not only happened to us tonight. We need to work hard and improve now. We knew this weekend would be tough for us.”

Moto2 & Moto3

The intermediate category of Grand Prix was owned by Pecco Bagnaia with the Red Bull KTM Ajo riders of Brad Binder and Miguel Oliveira fighting most of the Moto2 race distance for 5th place. The entertaining and close duel was won by the Portuguese with the South African just behind on the KTM Moto2 bike. In Moto3 Darryn Binder crashed out 15 laps from the flag, Gabriel Rodrigo captured 5th position as best rider on the KTM RC250 GP machine.

Aki Ajo (Team Manager Moto2/Moto3):

“It hasn’t been a bad start to the Moto2 season. We can’t be dissatisfied with the results in Moto2. With the end to last season that we had, we were all expecting some very good results early on this year for our riders. Finishing fifth and sixth is something we have to be happy about; it’s a good start to build on for the coming races. We have to improve our rear grip, as the riders are sliding a lot. We need to analyse what is happening, be positive and look forward.”

MotoGP moves west across the continents and to South America for the fifth consecutive Grand Prix de la Republica Argentina at the Termas de Rio Hondo circuit after the Easter holidays and in three weeks time.

Original Source[ KTM ]

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