Salom’s Mugello strategy pays off

Luis Salom took an impressive victory at the Italian Grand Prix, using an impeccable strategy to his advantage at Mugello. The Red Bull KTM Ajo team thus celebrates an entire year of podium finishes in Moto3. Zulfahmi Khairuddin —eleventh— claimed further points for the team and Arthur Sissis —eighteenth— made a comeback in the latter stages of the race.

Salom started from fifth on the grid, but this did little to impede him from taking his second win of the season and a fifth consecutive podium. The Spanish Red Bull KTM Ajo rider was made to suffer in the early stages, when he was stuck amongst a group of six riders, but with 3 laps remaining he finally moved into the lead. After several changes of positions, he took the win on the final lap by 0.099 from second-placed Alex Rins.

After five races, Luis Salom remains second in the overall standings but reduces the distance to the class leader, Maverick Viñales, to just 4 points.

Luis Salom
“It was a tough race. I knew that Viñales and Folger would be very fast, and that Rins had very good pace too. Marquez and Oliveira joined that group as well. All of those riders are very strong and I had to give everything I had; fortunately, it worked out. This circuit is very difficult: For example, in 125cc whoever was behind on the last corner didn’t win the race. But today, although I had my doubts, I gave it a try and took the risk. In the end all the bikes were running the same performance.
It’s going to be like that throughout the season, because now we go to Catalonia and Assen circuit —where there are also very long straights. We will give our all. I want to thank Red Bull, Air Asia, KTM and Aki Ajo for this opportunity and for the job they are doing.”

Source: Red Bull KTM Ajo Motorsport