A botched home race

Dark clouds over KTM: “Felt like a snail!”

(Bild: Pail Sepp/Sepp Pail)

A dark cloud hung not only over the Red Bull Ring towards the end of the Austrian Grand Prix, but also over the heads of the KTM team management. Because there was not much to be gained at the home race this time.

Brad Binder finished in fifth place, but admitted openly after the finish: "This position looks better than the gap to the top. 18 seconds is a massive gap. We still have a lot of work ahead of us." The South African is actually a Spielberg specialist, fifth place is his third worst result in seven starts in an Austrian Grand Prix. He gave free rein to his frustration about his "blunt" weapon in the duel against Marc Márquez's Ducati: "I felt like a snail."

Crisis summit: Head of Motorsport Pit Beirer, veteran Heinz Kinigadner and KTM boss Stefan Pierer.

(Bild: Pail Sepp/Sepp Pail)

However, things went even worse for his brand colleagues: Jack Miller, who was in fourth place at one point, ruined his race with a crash. "The crash was my mistake. You don't want to have days like today," he admitted openly. For Miller it was the last Spielberg race for KTM, he has to leave the team in the winter.

"We urgently need to find out"
The highly praised "wunderkind" Pedro Acosta had to cope with perhaps the toughest race weekend of his debut season. After three crashes on Friday and a botched qualifying session, he left Spielberg with just three championship points. And not even the wildcard deployment of test rider Pol Espargaro had the hoped-for effect. The Spaniard was riding a new prototype, which KTM hopes will have a big impact in the future.

But: "When we tested here recently, things went much better than today. We urgently need to find out why," said Espargaro. If Mattighofen wants to dispel the dark clouds, they will have to come up with something quickly.