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settembre 23, 2018 - KTM

MOTOGP - RACE - STRONG ARAGON GRAND PRIX FOR BRADLEY SMITH AS BRAD BINDER CELEBRATES VICTORY IN MOTO2

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MotoGP

MotoGP cooked in sweltering temperatures for the fourteenth round of nineteen and the third time on Spanish soil in the 2018 campaign. The fast and undulating curves of the MotorLand #aragon circuit drew a good crowd and another tight contest that was ruled by reigning world champion Marc Marquez for the third year in a row. Red Bull KTM were disappointed to lose Pol Espargaro after a crash in FP3 yesterday that meant further surgery on the Spaniard’s recently repaired left collarbone. The accident prompted Bradley Smith to again fly the orange flag alone on the KTM RC16 and to work through set-up choices for the 23 lap race where tyre preservation would be key in track temperatures that easily entered the 40s.  Smith made his customary bright start and was pushing Valentino Rossi hard for tenth place – a standing he occupied for three laps – but was powerless in the second half of the distance to resist a charging Maverick Viñales and Franco Morbidelli. With 13th position Smith made sure of grand prix points for the third time in the last four outings. Smith“This weekend has been a lot of fun. It was our second with the new RC16 package and we were able to test here a month ago, which meant we were already up to speed with our base setting and electronics. It was nice to fight with the guys for Q2 and my one-lap pace with the soft tyre was quite strong. At one point in the race today I was running P10 which is one of the best positions for us this season. I was strong in the first half of the race and then when the tyre dropped I struggled a bit more compared to the others around me. Nevertheless we’ll take a lot of positives from this weekend and we improved from Misano. Now the engineers and I have to study what we gathered from this race and bring some ideas. Randy de Puniet will now test here for two days and hopefully he can find a few more tenths to take overseas with us.” Mike Leitner (Team Manager MotoGP): “Bradley did a great job on a tough weekend where we lost Pol on Friday; it is always a bit harder to work with just one rider in terms of the settings. Until the middle of the race Bradley was able to fight for the top ten inside that group and this was good. For Pol, he has had surgery straightaway and we hope his recovery will be fine and quite fast. We hope to see him back on the bike but we will keep a close eye on his healing process with an eye towards Thailand.” 
Red Bull KTM will now continue 2018 and 2019 development work with a two day stint at #aragon on Tuesday and Wednesday with the test team and Randy de PunietMoto2Red Bull KTM Ajo stood on top of the #moto2 Grand Prix podium for the fourth time in 2018 and watched Brad Binder spray winner’s champagne for the second occasion this season and for the second time in his career. The South African had to work hard for his spoils: following and passing Alex Marquez and also having to deal with the presence of championship leader Pecco Bagnaia. The 23 year old was able to make a breakaway in the final four laps on his KTM Moto2 to toast his first success since a debut win in Germany in July. The result further consolidated his third position in the standings and behind teammate Miguel Oliveira who recovered from a tough Qualification and weekend of acclimatisation to Motorland by grabbing 9 points.

Binder"It's been an incredible weekend. Yesterday we got an unexpected pole and I was very happy to have qualified at the head of the grid. That gave me a lot of confidence for the race. Sunday did not start very well, because in the warmup I did not feel completely comfortable and had a few problems. However, thanks to a series of small changes that my team made for the race, everything worked normally -or even better. I am very grateful for the victory, which is my second in the #moto2 class, and I'm very happy to have got it here at MotorLand #aragon, which is a very special track for me. It's been a great day and I have taken some very important points for the Championship; If I continue in this way I think I can have a great final run in the season. I have to thank the team for the excellent job they are doing." Oliveira"I gave everything I had,  but it was a tricky race because of having to start from the sixth row. I was able to ride fast and my pace was very similar to that of my teammate, Brad Binder, but when I tried to overtake the other riders I lost a few tenths. I feel bad because in qualifying my best lap was cancelled, making me lose time today at the beginning, but this is the price you pay when you are so far back. This is something that we are going to work on and improve. I have my sights set on the flyaway rounds and on gaining the maximum amount of points: There are 125 still in play and we will try to take as many of those as we can. The work will start tomorrow, right here in #aragon, with a day of testing. We will give our all to try to improve and find anything that gives us more security on the bike, which we can apply in the coming races." Moto3
After the disappointment of his late crash at Misano and his home Grand Prix two weeks ago Marco Bezzecchi was back in form with his eighth podium appearance of the Moto3 term on the Redox Pruestel GP KTM RC250 GP. The Italian was ‘best of the rest’ behind an escaping Jorge Martin and keeps within 13 points of the Spaniard in the Moto3 standings. MotoGP will make a maiden appearance around the distinctive layout of the Chang International Layout in two weeks for the first Grand Prix of Thailand. 

Further information in the press release to download

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