The speed, scenery and spiral of the Red Bull Ring was another educational experience for Red Bull GASGAS Tech3’s star rookie Pedro Acosta. The 19-year-old throttled to 13th position at the eleventh Grand Prix of the MotoGP season in the depths of Austria. Teammate Augusto Fernandez classified 15th – meaning a double dose of points for the team – while the Red Bull GASGAS Tech3 squad shone in Moto3™ as Dani Holgado motored to 3rd in a gripping first race of the day.
Friday and Saturday’s sunshine and heat cooled slightly on race day for the Austrian Grand Prix. Fans still packed the grassy hills and enclosures of the Red Bull Ring. Pedro Acosta and Augusto Fernandez brought their GASGAS RC16s into 14th and 16th places on the grid for the 28-laps on Sunday.
Acosta leapt away at the lights to enter a chase for the top ten. A former GP winner at Red Bull Ring, Acosta had the confidence and the skill to push the limits from the outset but also had to be clever to make his tires last. Pedro pushed and probed and worked his way to three championship points. Augusto persevered to be the final scorer across the line.
The blend of corners and cambers that form the technical twist of MotorLand Aragon will bring round twelve to life in two weeks.
Pedro Acosta, 13th: “Hard to say much about today. We had some problems we did not expect. A hard race. Let’s look at how we can improve, keep working and be faster and better in Aragon and heading to Misano and the test. One positive thing was the big push from the factory here at their home GP. We can see how much the company really believes in MotoGP and wants to be at the top. We will make it.”
Augusto Fernandez, 15th: “A tough one. You have to manage the rear tire very well here and it almost becomes like a ‘survival’ race. In the end I’m happy with the point. We had been struggling all weekend and we were still quite far but I’m happy with the pace we made at least. I think we did our maximum possible today. Let’s move on and build some confidence for the rest of the season.”
Nicolas Goyon, GASGAS Factory Racing Tech3 Team Manager: “Probably the most difficult weekend of the season for us and we knew it could be tricky when we were not able to make Q2. Thinking about the top five becomes much tougher. Pedro did not have the speed he wanted at this GP and we have to focus on our weak points at the moment to get strong again. Augusto showed some fighting spirit and was in P14 until the last corner. We’ll take it positively and build on it for the future.”
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