MotoGP 2021 – Round Ten
Styria Red Bull Ring – Spielberg

Jorge Martin – P1

“I can’t believe it, for sure I think I still don’t believe it so I’m still not so excited! What I did today was amazing, I kept a really constant pace throughout the race, in the same tenth, and I was super focused. Even if I made some mistakes, my target was to win the race. Joan was impressive today too, he was behind me almost all the race but in the last laps I tried a bit more to brake a bit harder even if the front tyre was destroyed, and I could take a gap for the lead. On the last laps I was thinking a lot of things, about everything and everyone who helped me to arrive here and that’s why I was a bit worse in the last laps! But I had the gap to manage. Thanks to all my family, this is one big step towards my dream of being World Champion. Today is one big step, we’re a bit closer and I want to dedicate it to all the people who’ve helped me and also to my grandfather who is still fighting, this is for you. I hope to keep this line for next weekend, it’ll be more difficult but I think we still have some margin to work and we’ll try for the win again.”

Joan Mir – P2

“It was a tough race, it wasn’t easy trying to follow Jorge and towards the end of the race I made a mistake when trying to catch him and I went wide. Jorge was impressive today and very consistent with his lap times, so I want to congratulate him. In the end I’m satisfied and I feel very proud of the team and the factory who have made a great job over the summer. I’m happy to know that the new device is working, we have more acceleration and it puts us on a more level playing field – this gives me hope for the next races. Starting the second part of the season with a podium is a nice feeling and I feel confident for next weekend.”

Fabio Quartararo – P3

“It feels so good, because when there is a red flag it‘s tough, even if it‘s not a big crash. I made an impressive overtake in Race 1, Turn 6. I was a little bit on the limit and to repeat this was so difficult. I knew that Jack Miller was so fast. I was extremely good on braking in Turn 3. I knew that that was a good point to overtake if I was given that possibility. The goal was to finish on the podium, and we did it! I am so happy for Jorge Martin, and as a bonus he took some points from Joan Mir. Let‘s see what happens next week, but this leaves a good taste.”

Brad Binder – P4

“Today was a bit of chaos for the first race back! I almost crashed on the Sighting Lap of the first race actually. I don’t know why but it felt like the front tyre had no temperature and for the first flying lap it was like it was wet. We need to look and see what happened. I went down to 25th at one point because I almost ran off the track. I passed four-five guys in the next laps until the red flag. The restart was much better and I had more confidence even if we really need a harder front tyre. It is way-too weak for us. I was riding on the tyre limit the whole race but managed to make a couple of moves to take 4th, which I was really happy with.”

Takaaki Nakagami – P5

“I’m really happy with P5, it’s a great result and up to the last corner of the race we were fighting for P4. We had good pace and it was good battle throughout the race and to start from P10 and finish in P5 is quite good. I’m happy about my feeling on the bike and we were able to improve the bike from yesterday. We finished as the top Honda which is the most important thing and I’m really looking forward to the next race here in Austria and we can definitely fight for the top places”.

Johann Zarco – P6

“First of all congratulations to Jorge, what a fantastic race, I am very happy for him and for the team, they deserved it. I’m pretty satisfied, I picked up some important points and understood a lot of things. Next week we’ll start again with even more energy.”

Alex Rins – P7

“Today was a mixture of good and bad for me, I struggled a lot with the front brake and I didn’t feel comfortable on the hard braking zones. Lap by lap I tried to adapt to this and manage it, and I was able to gain some places. In the end I finished seventh, but for sure the bike was capable of finishing closer to the front so we need to adjust it and resolve the issue for next weekend. I’m pleased that we can race again in just a few days at this same track because it gives me another chance to improve and bring a better result. The ride height device felt good, it gave me a step forward in acceleration and I’m happy to keep working with it from Friday.”

Marc Marquez – P8

“I am happy with the weekend; our pace was good and I was riding well. But I am not happy with the race. In the first race I was feeling really good and I thought ‘this is my race’. In the second race we changed tyres and already on the out lap I could feel something strange. There was a lot of spinning and I couldn’t find any grip. I tried to cool the tyre a bit and then push again but I was one second slower than during practice. All we could do was finish the race and try to show our true performance next weekend. In the first race I was optimistic when I passed Aleix and touching was more my mistake, in the second race I had a better start and was inside and in front but then he released the brakes and turned in so I had no space and made contact, losing time. This is racing, it happens.”

Álex Márquez – P9

“Today was another good day for us. We have to be happy and proud as we had a really difficult first half of the season. Ninth position in the end, but honestly, I made too many mistakes during the race although I was giving 100 percent. We need to improve and keep going, but I’m very satisfied at how the team worked this weekend, now we have a few days here in Austria before the second race. So, I’m happy with the performance, we still have things to improve, but we are heading in the right direction.”

Dani Pedrosa – P10

“I think it is a good result and we are happy with the outcome and from what we have learned this weekend. I was riding well in the first race and I don’t know why but in the slow Turn 3 I lost the front. It was so slow that I stayed in the middle of the track and Savadori hit the bike. We created quite a big mess there. I hope he is OK. It was a bit tricky then because our second bike was set up for the wet but we could make the changes and for the restart I thought ‘OK, let’s try to finish the race’. I was more calm, more cautious and I didn’t push too much at the beginning which meant I lost a lot of ground. Once I had the feeling of the track and the bike I could push more and gained some positions as riders around me made mistakes. I was closing up to the group and it was interesting to feel how the tyres were working; it is different to testing but also what I felt in practice during the weekend. The top ten is good. Thank you to KTM and all my mechanics. They did a great job because we had a few moments when they had to work really hard. Thanks also to the fans, I hope they enjoyed the race.”

Francesco Bagnaia – P11

“I’m really disappointed with how the race went today. The first start was perfect, even though I didn’t feel completely comfortable with the front tyre. Unfortunately, I didn’t have the same feeling with the rear of the bike at the restart, which prevented me from riding the same way as before. Moreover, I received a three-second penalty for not taking the long lap penalty, but I was never told in the race to do so. It’s a shame because today we really had a great chance to fight for the win. We’ll try again next week”.

Enea Bastianini – P12

“It was a very difficult race. We had a good pace and tried to recover positions, but unfortunately we suffered a penalty for exceeding the limits of the track. We have taken a good step forward and the qualifying was a shame because we deserved to be further ahead, but fortunately next week we have another race and we will have a new opportunity.”

Valentino Rossi – P13

“It hasn’t been a bad day today because we managed to score some points after starting from 17th. In both starts I lost positions at the beginning. I felt good after the first start; I might have been behind the other riders but I had a good rhythm. Then after the second start we suffered with the rear grip a little bit more than in the first. In the end the race wasn’t too bad, I didn’t make any mistakes, my pace was good and we finished in the Top15. I was able to fight with those around me for position and I think we had a similar pace to what we had yesterday. For sure I want to do better, but today was not bad. We have some things to work on to try to be stronger next week.”

Luca Marini – P14

“In the first start, the feelings with the tyres and the bike have been very positive, but in the second, with the change of tyres, I started to have no grip on the rear. In the first few laps it was hard for me, then as the tyre wore out, the times were similar to those of the others. I have tried to be consistent, to do my best and to not make mistakes. Next week we will do another race here and work again on the details, which will be useful for future weekends.”

Iker Lecuona – P15

“It was a difficult day. In the wet conditions this morning, I felt very strong. I expected the race to be wet but finally it was dry. After 10 laps, I didn’t feel any grip anymore and had a lot of spinning. I struggled a lot and on top of that I got a long lap penalty. I didn’t understand why. With one point, I’m not very happy, as I knew we could have been finishing a lot closer to the front with the potential we have. But it’s just the first weekend and in a few days we have the opportunity to recover, so it’s time to restart.”

Pol Espargaro – P16

“Obviously it has been tough and honestly speaking a little embarrassing being this close to last. I think everything started in Qualifying because we were not that strong and also we tried the medium rear and ran out of rear tyres when the red flag made us restart. We went out with a rear with four laps already on it and I think with it going from cold to hot, to cold to hot with the warmers and the track condition I think we destroyed the tyre already before the race. There was a lot of spinning on the straight and in fourth gear I wasn’t accelerating. I wasn’t stopping. I don’t think there were any positives, it was just surviving. In the first start I think we could have done something more interesting.”

Cal Crutchlow – P17

“It was good to be back racing again. Physically I felt quite good and I’m happy to finish the race. I had an issue at the first start, which then affected my opening laps and I lost an important gap. Then on the re-start, we fixed the previous issue and I got into a good rhythm, so I’m happy with my race. I had a problem with the rear traction but it was good to complete the race distance. I’ve been able to gather some data for us to look through and the rear grip issue is something for us to try to understand. It was enjoyable to be back out there and I’m looking forward to doing it again next week.”

Danilo Petrucci – P18

“We knew it would be a difficult race for me in terms of acceleration and in fact, I struggled a lot to stay in the group. I managed to stay quite close to the others but at the end I tried to pass Iker, went wide and lost many positions. I’m very sorry for this mistake! All the race I fought to recover the time lost on the straight. We will try again next week.”

Maverick Vinales – P19

“We changed the clutch. I made a normal start on the grid for the warm-up lap, but the bike stopped. I’m happy that in the first race I was able to start well. I was fighting at the front, but in the second race the feeling was not the same. We changed the tyres, and I don’t know why but the bike was spinning so much, even on the main straight. I tried to go up the order, but then I had problems with the bike, and I stopped.”

Jack Miller – DNF

“I’m pretty dirty on myself with that one. I had a podium finish in my pocket with 10 laps left, but I asked too much of my front tyre and completely threw it away. Instead of getting another trophy here in Austria, I end the race on the floor and giving away a whole heap of points. First and second place were out of the question but third, that was there. And then you all saw what happened.

“The first race before the red flag hadn’t gone so well because I had a bit of a moment coming out of the first corner and got mugged on the way up to Turn 3 at the top of the hill, so I was buried in around ninth or 10th or something before it got stopped. So I was a bit lucky to get a second shot at a start, and I made that one work – I led into the first corner and even after I dropped a couple of spots on lap four, I felt good as I came back to Fabio (Quartararo) pretty easily in third, so I was pretty confident I could get back on the podium here again. 

“I made a change with the front tyre choice for the second race and ran with the hard instead of the medium, and while I was struggling with grip on the right-hand side edge at the beginning, I was able to manage it and able to still push basically as I wanted to. I could see Fabio’s pace starting to drop as he was coming back to me, so that’s why this one stung so much. I’m disappointed in myself more than anything, and sorry for the team of course. I need to see the data and see where it went wrong because I didn’t feel I asked that much of the front, but clearly I did something wrong. 

“Qualifying fourth on Saturday was a good day for us, because I felt we had to do quite a bit this weekend to get up to speed. Five weeks off the bike was one thing, but we had a few items the team brought to the weekend to test and whatnot, so maybe I was a bit preoccupied. Anyway, I was able to get some pace together to pull out a lap in my first run – maybe there was some time to gain in the second run but I kept making stupid little mistakes by pushing too hard. Sometimes you have to hold your hand up … as it was, it probably didn’t cost me a grid position because I was about three-tenths (of a second) off the front three anyway, but I could have been a bit closer. The nature of this track – it’s basically three long straights with some big stops at the end of them – means you can get sucked in to braking that little bit later, and the margins are pretty fine. A little more would have been nice, but we had a good position for the start. I thought we were in with a good shout of a result, and we were until my mistake. 

“There’s not too many positives to take out of today, but one small one is that I stayed in fifth in the championship because the two guys closest to me, Maverick (Vinales) and Miguel (Oliveira), both didn’t score points as well. It’s not much, but it is something …

“Austria was good to me finally last year – I had two podiums here and was in with a chance to win both races, especially the second one – so that’s why this one stings even more. The Ducati always goes well here and there’s a lot of guys who have won on it here, so I needed to make the best of that on these two weekends before we go to some tracks that maybe don’t suit our bike quite as much. So, I’ve thrown one away and have to make up for it next week. 

“On those Ducati winners, big congrats to Jorge Martin for his first win today, as a rookie too. The guy is a star so I’m happy for him. And for (Pramac Ducati team principal) Paulo Campinoti and my old team for their first win, it was cool to see those guys so happy. In between my sulking, I went next door to their garage and congratulated them. A lot of Jorge’s mechanics there are my old mechanics from last year so I’m stoked for those guys.”

Miguel Oliveira – DNF

“I’m disappointed not to finish the race. I felt that the ‘second’ race was going a bit better for me, I could find better lines and make some positions. Behind Brad I was managing the tyres and keeping cool but then I started to have a lot of vibration and had to retire because of a tyre problem. It’s disappointing because you feel like all the effort has been for nothing. It wouldn’t have been our best result this weekend, but we could have taken a nice top ten from all that we have been through here. The wrist is getting better day-by-day and all the things we are doing to take care of it are working. Hopefully through the week we can arrive to the best shape possible for the second race here in Spielberg.”

Aleix Espargaro – DNF

“Unfortunately, in both races, I started extremely well, but I was pushed wide twice and lost positions. In any case, I was recovering and I had the pace to finish in the top six, but the bike had a problem. It’s a pity because we lost important points, but also because of Lorenzo’s accident, once again on this track. I hope he will be able to recover quickly and be back on the track. Now we’ll just be thinking about next week’s race.”

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Team Managers

Shinichi Sahara – Suzuki  Project Leader and Team Director

“This weekend in Styria has been special for us as a team because we have been waiting a long time to try our new ride height device and finally we could use it for the first time in a race. Despite being a new system, it’s already working quite well and it seemed to help our riders with acceleration today, this also helped Joan to reach the podium. I cannot thank the engineers in Japan enough, they have done such an amazing job. I’d also like to congratulate Joan, who was very close to a win today. Alex had very consistent lap times today and I believe that next week he can finish even higher. Overall, we’re feeling very satisfied.”

Ken Kawauchi – Suzuki Technical Manager

“Today was a good day and Joan did a very good job. We missed a little something to get the win, but second place and the podium is still a really nice result. I have to thank the engineers who managed to prepare the new device in such a short time and to such a high standard. Alex had more potential than seventh place today, so it’s a bit of a pity for him, but we’re happy to have both riders collecting useful points and we hope next week at this track we can get even more.”

Massimo Meregalli – Monster Yamaha Team Director

“First of all, we are relieved that no riders were injured during the incident involving Dani Pedrosa and Lorenzo Savadori. Fabio did well not to let the red flag interruption faze him. He ’ended‘ Race 1 in third position, replicated his good start from earlier at the restart, and once again took hold of third place. On the other hand, the re-start kicked off a very unfortunate turn of events for Maverick. He had such a good start from ninth in Race 1 and was in the mix at the front when the race was halted. To have the bike stall at the re-start and having to start from pit lane was a very bitter pill for him to swallow. So, today‘s results are met with some mixed feelings from our team. But the most important thing we take away from this is that both our riders can challenge for the podium here in the dry. Spielberg is not traditionally a ’Yamaha circuit‘, so this shows the improvement we‘ve made, and we are eager for the rematch at this track next weekend.”

Mike Leitner – Red Bull KTM Race Manager

“We are very happy on one side of the garage because Brad rode really well to get to 4th place, especially in the second half of the race. On the other side we’re really disappointed for Miguel and for what happened to his front tyre. We had five bikes on the grid and four finished, including Dani in 10th which was pretty incredible. Iker scored a point and it was very difficult to manage the situation with the red flag and the front tyres. We’re happy with the results we made and also that there were no repercussions for anybody in the incident at Turn 3. We’ll now look ahead to perhaps an even better weekend to come. We are working well and working hard. It was great to see the KTM fans and the staff here. This racing project is the result of many people giving a lot of effort at the circuits and in the factory so we’re happy they can see the show and the results on track.”

Razlan Razali – Petronas SRT Team Principal

“The MotoGP race weekend began with the announcement of Valentino Rossi’s retirement so we consider it to be a great honour to have him in our team in what will be his final year. We wish him all the best and we will support him all we can for these final races. We just want him to have fun and to celebrate his career in this second half of the season. He had a decent opening few laps and he had good pace, finishing 13th which was positive today. We didn’t set any specific race targets for Cal and he did a good job to finish 17th, especially having had time away from riding.”

Hervé Poncharal – Tech3 KTM Team Manager

“We were quite disappointed when we saw the red flag, because Iker got a really great start in race one, but he did the same again in race two. I think Iker is good to start and to push hard during the first lap. I believe he did a good race, steady, always in the points. He went up to P11 even, took his space and we were quite safe in P12 until he unfortunately got the long lap penalty, which ruined our race. I think this is a tough track for that and we saw that we were not the only ones. But eventually he dropped to 16th and passed Danilo on the last lap. So we got a point. It’s a small reward, but I think Iker did a strong weekend, both, in dry and wet conditions and I’d like to thank him for that. It’s still a bit of a bitter feeling to have lost that P12, that was ours three laps to go.”

“On the other side of the garage, I think Danilo was never in a position to score points until the last laps when Iker got his long lap penalty. He was not far in terms of lap times, he has been fighting with Rossi, Marini and Bastianini at some stage of the race. He ended up the race with interesting feedback. There’s not much more to say than thanks guys, to have pushed the whole weekend. Let’s try to maximise on the data and the knowledge we have now on that track in order to be better next weekend.”

2021 Assen MotoGP Race Results

2021 MotoGP Standings

2021 FIM MotoGP World Championship calendar

(Subject to change)

Source: MCNews.com.au