Points earned at Red Bull Spanish Grand Prix MotoGP 2019 Round 4 of 19, Circuito de Jerez-Angel Nieto (ESP) - RACE Warm sunshine bathed the fourth round of MotoGP at the Circuit de Jerez-Angel Nieto and the first fixture of the series in Europe. In front of a large crowd and busy paddock, the Red Bull KTM quartet tackled a resurfaced, grippy Spanish layout, and were slightly handicapped by qualification slots from Saturday that placed the riders towards the back of the grid. Pol Espargaro – a former GP winner at Jerez – headed the KTM RC16 runners and engaged in a long duel with countryman Jorge Lorenzo for positions on the fringe of the top ten. As the laps clicked down and other rivals either retired or fell the tussle was on for 12th and Pol just lost out by misreading his pit-board, taking 13th by the flag and with a marginally faster race time than 2018. Zarco, using a new chassis on his #5 racebike circulated a small distance behind his teammate for 14th. The Red Bull KTM Tech3 pairing of Miguel Oliveira and Hafizh Syahrin rode to 18th and 19th places respectively. Espargaro is 11th in the MotoGP standings while Zarco has obtained 7 points from the four outings so far. Jerez will be busy once more tomorrow with testing due to take place throughout Monday and for the first of four post-GP outings planned for 2019. Red Bull KTM will also ride again on Wednesday. Pol Espargaro: “I did a good race. I suffered with the grip in the beginning but caught Lorenzo and passed him. I then just misread my pitboard and eased off a lap earlier. It was one of the biggest mistakes in my career. I was so focussed and so on the limit that I was not thinking about anything else except that Jorge would not pass me back. In the end we lost one position and also I would have been closer to the winner in terms of race time. I know we also had good lap-time speed today. We have a lot to do tomorrow now and to compare what we had in Le Mans and also this weekend.” Johann Zarco: “Tough today. I wanted to overtake more riders but I was on the limit for a lot of the race and losing in acceleration, so it was complicated to pass people on the brakes. I could keep some pace and kept with Pol but in the second half of the race I had to set the target of just finishing. I think we will take some good information in the Monday test. We had some improvement during the weekend but we need to take the general feeling on the bike higher.” Miguel Oliveira: “It has been a difficult race, I couldn’t manage to stay up with the riders in front of me. So I just kept my rhythm, pushed every lap and took home 18th position. The team tried many things to help me but it seems like this weekend with the new parts, it was hard to find our balance with the bike again that we built through the tests and the first races. Now with the new material, I think we need a bit more time to find solutions to help me being comfortable and fast on the bike.” Hafizh Syahrin: “We tried some different things in the warm-up this morning and I have to admit that I didn’t think it was a big improvement but the feeling was a bit better. In the race I did my fastest laps of the weekend and caught up with [Bradley] Smith and Miguel until eight laps to go I couldn’t keep the pace anymore because the rear was sliding quite a lot and I couldn’t open the gas like I wanted to. Anyway, I keep believing in myself, stay positive and we for sure keep working hard for the next round in order to be better for the home Grand Prix for my team.” Mike Leitner, Red Bull KTM Team Manager: “A weekend with some problems and it looks like we struggle more with rear grip here compared to some other places. The riders pushed to the maximum and Pol made a great race. In the end a small mistake led to a big consequence and I feel very sorry for him. He could have been 12th but did well anyway. Johann was also in this group. Pol’s fastest lap-time was just 0.5 slower than the race winner and we are twenty seconds behind Marquez: these are not horrible figures but we know we have to help the riders more and we will work hard in the company to make the bike better.” Moto2 & Moto3 Moto3 kicked off race day with a typically electric multi-rider battle for the podium. Behind winner Niccolo Antonelli fellow Italian and SKY Racing Team VR46 racer Celestino Vietti celebrated only his second rostrum finish in 3rd place in what was just his seventh Moto3 start. The teenager was the best KTM RC250GP runner as the bike filled 4th and 5th positions also thanks to Aron Canet and Albert Arenas. Red Bull KTM Ajo’s Can Öncü was 18th: equalling the best classification of his rookie season so far. The Moto2 sprint had to be red-flagged and restarted after two separate incidents in Turn1 and Turn2 claimed multiple riders. The Grand Prix was won by Lorenzo Baldassarri but Red Bull KTM Ajo’s Brad Binder claimed 5th as teammate Jorge Martin crashed out. The first round of the 2019 Red Bull Rookies Cup graced the race programme at Jerez for the first of seven appointments this year. From the 25 riders gathered from 15 countries, Japanese Yuki Kunii owned the first dice on Saturday and then Spain’s Carlos Tatay won on Sunday. The 2018 Red Bull Rookie Champion is Can Öncü. In two weeks time the Shark Helmets Grand Prix de France will take the FIM World Championship into the historic surroundings of Le Mans for round five. Next race: May 19, Le Mans Bugatti Grand Prix Circuit, Shark Helmets Grand Prix de France (FRA) Results Race MotoGP Circuito de Jerez-Angel Nieto 2019 1. Marc Marquez (ESP), Honda 41:08:685 2. Alex Rins (ESP), Suzuki +1.654 3. Maverick Viñales (ESP), Yamaha +2.443 4. Andrea Dovizioso (ITA), Ducati +2.804 5. Danilo Petrucci (ITA), Ducati +4.748 13. Pol Espargaro (ESP), Red Bull KTM +20.156 14. Johann Zarco (FRA), Red Bull KTM +26.706 18. Miguel Oliveira (POR), Red Bull KTM Tech3 +41.570 19. Hafizh Syahrin (MYS), Red Bull KTM Tech3 +50.568 Results Race Moto2 Circuito de Jerez-Angel Nieto 2019 1. Lorenzo Baldassarri (ITA) Kalex 25:33.841 2. Jorge Navarro (ESP) Speed Up +0.359 3. Augustino Fernandez (ESP) Kalex +1.091 5. Brad Binder (RSA) Red Bull KTM Ajo +3.767 DNF. Jorge Martin (ESP) Red Bull KTM Ajo Results Race Moto3 Circuito de Jerez-Angel Nieto 2019 1. Niccolo Antonelli (ITA), Honda 39:30.327 2. Tatsuzki Suzuki (JON), Honda +0.242 3. Celestino Vietti (ITA), KTM +0.305 18. Can Öncü (TUR) Red Bull KTM Ajo +15.474 Download the 2019 Gran Premio Red Bull de España MotoGP Photo gallery HERE Contact: Press & PR Manager Sebastian Kuhn +43 676 599 0084 sebastian.kuhn@ktm.com