Fantastic fourth for Sasaki in #PortugueseGP, Öncü with well-deserved point

With some penalties in the Moto3 World Championship field, Red Bull KTM Tech3’s Ayumu Sasaki launched off the Portuguese Grand Prix from the second row of the grid, after he qualified in P10 yesterday. The Japanese fought hard in the leading group all the race, always occupying a top 10 spot. With a great effort on the final laps, Sasaki managed to snatch fourth and eventually crossed the line just 0.031 seconds behind the top 3.

After he got his best Qualifying result ever with the seventh fastest time yesterday, Deniz Öncü was penalized to start from pit lane with five seconds behind the field. Yet, the Turkish youngster kept his head down. While he was doing the fastest laps of the race early on, he caught up step by step until he arrived in a fantastic 15th position at the line, following 21 very focused and strong laps, earning a well-deserved championship point.

Ayumu Sasaki

“We had a good race. We started well, although it was a bit difficult to overtake in the beginning of the race as I couldn’t exploit the new tyres fully, but from the middle of the race, when everyone dropped a bit, I could gain a bit over them and managed to come back little by little. In the end, we finished P4, which is strong, but at the same time we were so close to the podium, that it’s with a bitter sweet taste. We still did a great race and now we focus again for Jerez and aim to do well there as well.”

Deniz Öncü

“The race was quite good for me. I was ready to fight on the top today, but with the penalty this wasn’t possible. I had to start from pit lane with five seconds plus, but during the race, I managed to do pretty good lap times. I did my best during all the 21 laps and got one point, which is my first point this season. Now I know, what I am capable of, so I definitely can’t wait to start the next race in Jerez.”