MotoGP 2018

Round 11 – Red Bull Ring

MotoGP Riders reflect on Austrian MotoGP

Jorge Lorenzo – P1

“It was an incredible race, maybe one of the best of my career, quite simply spectacular! Winning with Ducati on this circuit, where I had never won before, after a close quarters battle with Marquez, has a really special taste. Before the race I had thought about which strategy to use, and I decided to do like Brno, administering the tyre wear well and then attacking in the final part of the race, especially because I was one of the few riders who had chosen ‘soft’ tyres and my riding style allowed me to conserve them until the end. When I found myself fighting against Marquez I knew that it was going to be difficult to pass him, so I decided to improvise by making the best use of the Desmosedici GP’s acceleration and it worked perfectly. Now we’re third in the championship standings, but above all I’m proud and very pleased with the way we’re working because the feeling with the bike is better and better all the time and I believe we can fight for the win in many other races. Now let’s just enjoy this moment with all the team and I’m also very happy for them.”

MotoGP Rnd Austria RaceMichelin Lorenzo — Jorge Lorenzo

Marc Marquez – P2

“Today I enjoyed the race a lot because I finished second but really gave it everything. In Brno I didn’t have enough confidence, while here, I tried. I started to push hard from the beginning as I had chosen the hard rear tyre with the target of trying to open a gap early on, because I knew that Dovi and Lorenzo would be very fast at the end of the race, when the tyres dropped. That was our strategy today and for a short while I believed I would be able to carry it out, but soon they caught me again. It was a great battle. I tried to defend, to change my lines, but it was impossible. This is a track where they’re very strong, especially on the straights. In these situations we try to manage at our best, and we also have our very competitive points; we were very strong on braking and entering the corners. For sure we will use those strengths and have our say at other tracks. So far we’ve always been right there, always on the podium, and that’s the most important thing. We lost only five points on Lorenzo and gained more on Valentino, who’s second in the standings. We’re happy with this result; we’ve done a great job here.”

MotoGP Rnd Austria RaceMichelin Marquez Pin Throttle — Marc Marquez extended his championship points lead to 59

Andrea Dovizioso – P3

“At the start of the race unfortunately I was never able to get in amongst the battle for first place, because I couldn’t pass Jorge even though at that moment I was quicker than him, but to do that I used up the rear tyre too much, it dropped off a lot ten laps from the end, and this affected my race a bit. From that point onwards, I wasn’t able to do much because I couldn’t link up the corners very well. Pity, because we were pretty good under braking, but every race has its own story and we must always try and interpret the tyres in the best possible way.”

Cal Crutchlow – P4

“We weren’t able to compete for the podium here today, but before the weekend I said we’d be happy with a top six finish and that’s what we have come away with. I rode well, but I couldn’t go away with the front guys at the start. It was impossible with the hard front tyre as I needed to build heat into it, as I almost found out at turn four on the first lap when I nearly went down. I am obviously happy with the result today. I finished 15th here over the last couple of years, so to finish fourth today is a big step forward. To go away from here with valuable points and a couple of races of strong finishes it means that I can throw the chips all in at Silverstone in two weeks. A top-five finish won’t be out of the question, and I will aim to get onto that podium in front of the home fans.”

MotoGP Rnd Austria RaceMichelin Crutchlow — Cal Crutchlow

Danilo Petrucci – P5

“It was a good weekend. I come back home very happy because we did a great job. I knew that it would be difficult to fight for the podium. I tried to attack Crutchlow for fourth but that’s okay. We have taken important points”.

MotoGP Rnd Austria RaceMichelin Petrucci Rins — Danilo Petrucci

Valentino Rossi – P6

“I was able to enjoy the race, because I could recover a lot of positions and do some good overtaking, and nobody overtook me. This morning we tried something different that I liked. Unfortunately, I wasn’t faster, but I was able to keep my pace more consistent and use the rear tyre less. I started well, but I was in the rider pack. I had some hard battles at the beginning, but after I could recover. If I could have taken part in Q2 and started a little more towards the front, maybe then I could have fought with Petrucci, but from Crutchlow on there was no way because they were faster than us. We’ll try to improve for the next race.”

MotoGP Rnd Austria RaceMichelin Rossi Rabat — Valentino Rossi – Red Bull Ring 2018

Dani Pedrosa – P7

“After the start, turn one was a bit messy but okay, but after a couple of corners, something happened with Smith, Rossi, Zarco, and I don’t know who else, and I went off the track, losing five or six positions. I found myself very far back in the pack. As usual, in the beginning I also struggled with the feeling and grip, so it took me some time before I was able to get into a good enough rhythm. When I felt more comfortable, I started making some passes, and the situation became better and better. This is something we need to solve because by the time I start to be fast, the race is gone.”

MotoGP Rnd Austria RaceMichelin Espargaro Rossi — Austrian MotoGP

Alex Rins – P8

“We needed a very, very good start and I was proud of what I did. Also in the first few laps I was able to hold my position, then lap by lap and during the last part of the race when the tyre dropped off it was impossible for me to keep the rhythm and Rossi and Pedrosa passed me. I tried to stay with them but it was not possible. It’s something that usually, with my riding style, I don’t suffer with as much and I can even gain positions late in the race. But in the last two rounds it’s been the opposite. We need to continue to work on the last part of races because the team and bike have a lot of potential. Anyway, I’m excited to ride at Silverstone, I like it a lot, and I hope to do a good job there.”

MotoGP Rnd Austria RaceMichelin Rins Rossi — Alex Rins

Johann Zarco – P9

“It has been a difficult race today. I expected to have a better pace, to be honest. I chose the soft tyre because it was the one I had the best feeling with, but it wasn’t easy. In the first corner I lost too many positions and then I was not able to catch back up, so I was struggling. I tried to do the best, but I was too slow. Even when Valentino overtook me, I thought I could find a better pace, but it was not possible. So I had to finish the race and in the end it was kind of funny. It was maybe my best moment in the race when Bautista passed me and we were catching up on Tito. On the last lap we had a great fight, overtook each other a few times. In the last corner I took advantage and finally was able to finish ninth. It’s not a great result, but not the end of the world, even on a track I like.”

MotoGP Rnd Austria RaceMichelin Espargaro — Austrian MotoGP

Álvaro Bautista – P10

“Top ten finishes are always important but I was hoping for more from this race because of the feeling I had with the bike in practice. I made a good start and moved up a couple of positions but a few riders ran wide into turn three and one of them ran into me. Luckily, I didn’t crash but I did lose several positions. I had to spend the rest of the race recovering ground and the feeling wasn’t the same as in practice. I was struggling to get the bike stopped but I could see that I had the pace to catch the guys in front of me. I was able to catch Zarco and Rabat and even moved up to ninth in the final corner but Zarco came in a little aggressive and passed us both. It is a good result but I think it could have been better without the incident on the first lap – maybe the top six or seven, which was our true potential today. Hopefully we can keep this up in England.”

MotoGP Rnd Austria RaceMichelin Bautista — Austrian MotoGP

Tito Rabat – P11

“We have done everything right this weekend, we did well in the practice sessions and in qualifying, I had a good start and I rode a strong race. Only towards the end, a part of the puzzle was missing. On the last laps, I was left without rear tyre grip and suffered quite a bit. The bike worked fantastically, I was with the front group of riders on the first laps and we were closer to the top once again. Now I have to learn how to manage throttle control in the right way to save the tyres. Thanks to the team that did a great job as always!”

MotoGP Rnd Austria RaceMichelin Rabat — Tito Rabat

Maverick Viñales – P12

“For me the race was OK, I didn’t have any new problems, but we do have issues on the bike, especially at the start, when the bike didn’t have any power. It’s something I don’t understand, because we worked quite well the last two weekends to make good starts and here it was impossible. We’ll be focusing on Silverstone and will try to forget this weekend. Now I will go to Misano for our test and try to enjoy the riding and see if we can improve.”

MotoGP Rnd Austria RaceMichelin Vinales Iannone — Maverick Viñales and Andrea Iannone

Andrea Iannone – P13

“It was a difficult one for me, from the beginning I didn’t have very good grip on the rear and I couldn’t accelerate well. On the straight I was losing a lot and riders were overtaking me under acceleration. I recovered a lot on the braking, but it was difficult for me to over-take. When Pedrosa passed me I made a mistake and I lost about 2 seconds, then when I was riding alone I could recover and find a good pace without having to fight against others. Towards the end the tyres dropped a lot but I tried my best, despite my mistakes. I hope Silverstone will be a better race for us. I think with a good setup we can be at the top.”

Bradley Smith – P14

“The nice thing is that we are learning more and more about the bike and made more improvements in the morning. The warm-up was a lot of fun and in cool track conditions the grip level was high and I could get the maximum out of the bike, and in Qualifying we have been able to extract better performance; which is something I have been focussing on. I knew the race would be a bit of a struggle because the bike has its strengths but when the track gets greasy then this is where we see some weaknesses. I qualified 13th and finished 14th and this is where we expected to be. We finished ahead of some good riders on good bikes and I don’t think we can ask for much more. We pretty much defeated nearly all the satellite riders. I felt I made a perfect race and there was not much else I could have done. The team did a great job setting up the bike and 14th was our position today.”

Takaaki Nakagami – P15

“The conditions today were quite warm and so I tried a new set-up during the morning warm-up, which was a positive step forward from qualifying. After a good start and a good turn one I was in a better position. It was a bit of a traffic jam, and turn four was tricky, but I found a gap and made up more spots. After that I tried to make no mistakes in the 28 laps. I tried to follow Viñales, but after ten laps I couldn’t manage it anymore, but it helped me keep a consistent lap time as it became a lonely race for me. I tried my best as always, and even tried to pass Espargaro on the final lap. I made it stick which brought home a point. It’s just one, but it’s better than nothing. I want to say a big thanks to the LCR Honda IDEMITSU Team because the last few races have been tough for me. Finally, we have come back and we will try to continue that form. We have a test in Misano this week, so hopefully that will help us some more if we keep pushing hard.”

Hafizh Syahrin – P16

“The race was really good regarding my rhythm, but I was a bit disappointed about myself because I didn’t do a good Qualifying. This track is not easy for the Yamaha machine and we missed some sessions because of the weather, so we didn’t do many kilometers on this track. As I’m here for the first time with the GP bike, I realized that the circuit looks easy on the paper, but in some corners we need some traction to have a good drive. In the race the bike was really good for me, I could do the pace like the top 10 in every lap, it’s just a shame that I was so far back. On the first lap I needed to start to pass many riders that were slower than me. The last lap was truly good, I thought I could pass Nakagami, but in the end it didn’t work out. Next race, I try to improve my Qualifying, which is very important now as we know that we can be really strong in the race. I need to work very hard and I’m looking forward to the next GP.”

MotoGP Rnd Austria RaceMichelin Syahrin — Hafizh Syahrin

Aleix Espargaro’ – P17

“I had a good start and in the early part of the race I was fast. I rode to the limit, maybe a bit too much, to try and stay in the group battling for the top 10. I stressed the rear tyre a lot in order not to lose ground, but after 15 laps, I lost grip and it was impossible to fend off the attacks. We know what our problems are and we need to work to solve them. The early laps with a good level of competitiveness gave me confidence, but we need added effort to bridge the gap. We have testing scheduled in Misano with a lot of upgrades that the Aprilia engineers will be bringing. It will be a fundamental day that we’ll need to fully exploit.”

Jack Miller – P18

“It’s a shame because the first part of the race was very good. I was pushing hard then the front wheel temperature rose too high and I was unable to keep the pace. It was a very difficult weekend. I can’t wait to be in Silverstone”.

MotoGP Rnd Austria RaceMichelin Miller — Jack Miller – Austrian MotoGP 2018

Franco Morbidelli – P19

“I am quite happy with my performance but unfortunately I made the wrong tyre choice. I chose the soft rear and from the beginning I had less grip than the other riders in my group. Towards the end of the race the grip dropped even more so it was not good decision to go with the soft. But I’m happy with my riding and the performance of the bike and look forward to test coming up in Misano before the Silverstone race.”

Scott Redding – P20

“This was an extremely difficult weekend. I was only able to demonstrate my potential in the wet, whereas on the dry track a series of factors kept us from doing any better than a result that is quite frankly disappointing. It’s frustrating because the final position does not reflect my efforts. Now we have a test in Misano ahead of my home race at Silverstone, so I hope it will help us to come out of this negative period.”

Karel Abraham – P21

“I am disappointed with this weekend. I like the circuit here in Austria, it suits my style, but we have not been able to produce a performance today. I have had a few difficulties with the front end, also the rear… we were also unlucky yesterday when I got blocked by another rider in qualifying. We should have done better in the race because I was riding on the limit, but in the end I lost out to Scott Redding. The pass he made on me, I couldn’t defend it – I had the throttle fully open but he got alongside me and made the pass, and it was impossible for me to come back on him. It would have been difficult to fight for the points today but I think we could have finished a couple of positions higher up. It was a tough race.”

Tom Luthi – P22

“It was difficult weekend and one to forget because I never really found a good rhythm in the race and get temperature into the tyres even though it was a hot day. We need to check what the problem was for this and move to the next race in Silverstone.”

Xavier Simeon – DNF

“A very positive weekend ended in a bad way. I had a lot of problems with the soft front tyre compound in the race, the front was constantly at the point of folding away until it finally happened and I crashed. I am very disappointed because up until the race, everything had gone so well and it was a shame that it ended like that.”