Ayumu Sasaki and Deniz Oncu unlucky in Grand Prix of Styria

Ayumu Sasaki started race day at the Red Bull Ring in fantastic form. The Red Bull KTM Tech3 rider did the fastest lap of the entire Moto3 World Championship field this morning in Warm Up and was ready to display another amazing race. Launching off from P19 on the grid, the Japanese youngster quickly made up positions to catch up with the front group after the opening laps. With eight laps to go, Sasaki was fighting for the win in an impressive way, but ended his flawless race unindebted in the gravel of turn one with just five laps to go.

On the other side of the Red Bull KTM Tech3 garage, Deniz Öncü started the race from the fourth row. The Moto3 rookie was learning, but keeping the pace of the top group. He eventually closed up to the top 5 in the second half of the race, showing some good speed. While trying to improve further on his position, the Turkish youngster was too late on the brakes in turn one with five laps to go and collided into his teammate. Öncü was taken to hospital for further examinations after an initial medical check luckily didn’t reveal any severe injuries.

Ayumu Sasaki

“Today has been a great race. We had a good Warm Up and started with P1 today. I felt good with the bike, but we knew that we needed to start from P19, so it was clear, that we have some work to do in the beginning of the race. But I had a really good pace, so I knew I could be in the front. I stayed relaxed and in the opening laps, I could pass many riders and catch the front group quite quick, even quicker than I expected because when I arrived there I still had 16 laps to go. So, I said ok, now it’s time to stay calm, stay in the group, at least in the top 4 or 5 and when I saw it’s six laps to go, I told myself, now it’s time to be here and see what we can do on the last two laps. Unfortunately, Deniz crashed me out. I didn’t know what happened, just watched the video. He went a little bit too hot in turn one and he lost the control. It can happen, because also he is a rookie and when he is fighting for the front, I understand, that you always want more. At the same time, I think it’s not really nice to crash with your teammate at the home GP for us. I’m very disappointed, but I can’t say anything else. We were strong and we just need to move on to Misano. That’s all we can do right now.”