MotoGP 2018

Round 11 – Red Bull Ring

Team Managers on the Austrian MotoGP

Luigi Dall’Igna – Ducati Corse General Manager

“I’m pleased, because both of our riders were always competitive throughout the entire weekend here at the Red Bull Ring, both in practice and in the race and in all weather conditions. Today, Jorge was truly awesome and he impressed me in many aspects. All year he’s been braking really hard and you can see that he’s improved a lot from this point of view. Pity about Andrea, who for sure could have aimed a lot higher, but a podium is in any case always an excellent result. I also want to congratulate Marquez, because he really gave us a hard time on this track, which on paper was more favourable for us. Well done to him.”

MotoGP Rnd Austria Team Ducati — Ducati improved their team standings with yet another double podium for the Italian brand

Massimo Meregalli – Movistar Yamaha MotoGP Team Director

“After yesterday’s qualifying results the team worked really hard to prepare something for the riders to up their chances for the race. Starting from the middle of the grid is always a bit dangerous, it’s busy and unpredictable. Nevertheless, both our riders emerged from the opening lap unscathed. Vale did a great job riding to sixth place, especially considering the start to the weekend we had these past two days. It’s a shame Maverick’s rhythm in the middle of the race couldn’t be capitalized on at the end, to have both riders inside the top-10. We will certainly take lessons from this race day. Now we will regroup and then focus our attention on next week’s test in Misano.”

MotoGP Rnd Austria RaceMichelin Rossi — Valentino Rossi and Johann Zarco

Hervé Poncharal – Monster Yamaha Tech3 Team Manager

“We knew this weekend wouldn’t be easy and in the end, it wasn’t. Johann did the best he can and I would like to thank him one more time for his never-give-up-attitude. The Qualifying was the highlight of the weekend for sixth position, first Yamaha, second row and it was quite a long time we weren’t on the second row. So, we were quite positive and hopeful of an ok result. He started average and was in a group where there were a lot of touches and they were messing with each other, so they lost contact with the leading group. Once he got his head down and found his rhythm he has been fighting all race long. In the end I think, he is not where he wants to be and not where we want him to be. We do the best we can with our package and we know it will not change and be the same until Valencia. We just try to continue the way we are doing, trying to keep positive and not have a negative attitude. I think in this tough moment is where you learn a lot. It’s not easy and it’s always so much easier to fight for top positions, but I think this will help him for his future career and clearly next year. That’s the main lesson – continue to get the best out of our package, keeping a positive attitude, believing in each other; him in the team and the team in him and maybe some circuits will be easier for us. We knew that Honda and Ducati were almost impossible to beat here, so we just need to carry on pushing. Hafizh did a really good race, not like in Czech Republic and not on the media and TV radar one more time. He had a slow start, but recovered really well, got some guys like Miller behind him, finished ahead of Franco Morbidelli and right behind Takaaki Nakagami. I think with one more lap he would have maybe been able to get one more position because he was a lot quicker than the two of them. 16th is not the best result, but he learned a lot today and I think this is what we are expecting from him. I’m proud of Hafizh and on what he did today because the whole race was truly competitive, fast from the start to the end and he did a good job. These two races back to back were a bit tough, now we have a few days off and then it’s time to go to Silverstone.”

MotoGP Rnd Austria RaceMichelin Zarco — Johann Zarco, Andrea Iannone and Dani Pedrosa – Austrian MotoGP 2018

Mike Leitner – KTM Team Manager

“We knew it would be difficult here after Brno. With just one rider you cannot do things like split strategies and look at tyres. We were limited but Bradley did a very solid job. Last year’s winner was just in front of him today. He felt strong after warm-up but missed a bit of rear grip in corner entry during the race and this stopped him setting the same rhythm as he did in the morning but, overall, it was a good weekend. We hope we can continue our journey in Silverstone with two riders again. I think it was a great Grand Prix for KTM with the Moto3 result and the fantastic race in Moto2. I think the team could see the big level of support in Austria and how many people are interested in our project. This gives us extra confidence and power to deliver more results in the future.”

MotoGP Rnd Austria QP Smith Mechanics — Bradley Smith

Ken Kawauchi – Suzuki Technical Manager

“It was a difficult race, we know this track is not the best for us. The first half of the race for Alex was not so bad, but the second half of the race we lost the pace a bit. Unfortunately Andrea had a few small run-offs and lost time. But after these two races, Brno and here, our programme for improvement has become very clear so this good for the rest of the season and also for next year.”

Davide Brivio – Suzuki Team Manager

“We knew today would not be easy, but in the end Alex made a very good race after a very good start. He kept up strong pace but by the end we suffered a bit and he had to drop the pace which resulted in him losing two positions. But we did the race that we aimed for, which was to try to stay with the second group. He also improved a lot from the first practice onwards in terms of his riding. Andrea had more difficultly and during the battles he made a few small mistakes and had to recover a couple of times, but overall today has not been so bad for a track which we knew wasn’t a favourite for us. I hope Silverstone will suit us better, we’re looking forward to it.”

Piero Taramasso – Michelin

“This has been an interesting weekend and a very positive one. We had a mix of weather and track temperatures and all of our tyres worked well in every condition. In the torrential rain the full wets gave the riders confidence to push and then in the drying conditions, after the rain, the medium compound wets showed the potential of how they can perform and their durability on what finally became a dry track. All of the slicks were used in the race and as temperatures were much higher today than we had experienced all weekend, the performance from every compound was another vindication that we can supply tyres for all to use. The race produced a lap record for Andrea and a race duration record from Jorge, with Marc just missing the pole record yesterday, despite the conditions being far from perfect on Saturday. We are very pleased with what we accomplished this weekend and now we look forward to the next challenge at the resurfaced Silverstone.”