KTM makes history
Austrians win Moto2, Moto3 and take a podium in MotoGP
KTM enjoyed an almost perfect day at Valencia, by scoring podiums in all three classes as Pol Espargaro rocketed to the MotoGP winners’ enclosure and Miguel Oliveira and Can Oncu backed it up in Moto2 and Moto3. Espargaro was fast all weekend in both wet and dry conditions, and despite crashing out of the original running of Sunday’s race before re-joining, he was able to make the best out of a red flag to get a second chance. Coming home in third, it marks the high point of KTM’s two-year campaign in the premier class. Speaking to MCN after the race, KTM boss Pit Beirer says while they’ve been on an upward curve for the last two seasons, he couldn’t have imagined that a podium success, even in the wet, was within their reach this soon. “This project started in a small office in Austria, and from there we went to fighting with the top manufacturers in the kings’ class of racing. We’ve entered and won championships before, but we’ve never been in a series as complicated and difficult as this. “The podium came in the rain but we were fast all weekend. I don’t want to say we had podium performance all weekend but we were strong. The latest bike parts have made it better. It was definitely a perfect day for us.” The result might have come earlier than expected as the team targeted top eight finishes this season, but the former motocross racer says while it might not quite be the plan, he’s happy to take the welcome boost that he believes the result will bring to the project. “It doesn’t fit in our timeline at all, but we’ll take it! Last year we had good results, because we finished ninth when we expected finishing 15th would be hard. I will never forget the dark, dusty, ugly night in Qatar last year on the very back row of the grid with our CEO and his wife, thinking ‘this is a long way back.’ But I promised him we’d work until we were standing on the front looking the other way! Third wasn’t expected; after finishing ninth last year we wanted to be eighth this year, but on Sunday we brought home both results with Bradley in eighth!” KTM also celebrated a great result in Moto3, with rookie and wildcard Can Oncu becoming the youngest rider ever to win a Grand Prix and the first person to win their debut race since 1991. Delivering a very mature performance for his first time in Moto3 and at only 15 years old, the new Red Bull Rookies Cup champion then got to watch Miguel Oliveira claim victory in the Moto2 race.
And, with a pipeline in place that has already led former Rookies Cup champion Johann Zarco to a factory MotoGP machine and with new Moto3 champion Jorge Martin the latest to follow in his footsteps as he steps up to replace Oliveira, the future is looking bright for the Austrian manufacturer.