Source: Supplied.

Red Bull KTM Factory Racing duo Pol Espargaro and Bradley Smith delivered a double race finish for the Austrian manufacturer in its full-time MotoGP debut at Losail International Circuit’s 2017 opener, claiming 16th and 17th positions.

Just outside the points in what was a challenging affair under lights in Qatar, Espargaro and Smith gained valuable race mileage aboard the pair of RC16s to open KTM’s official premier class project on good terms.

“We are super-happy,” KTM MotoGP team manager Mark Leitner reflected. “It was very important that both riders finished this race. We showed what a big step this is for our company – everyone has been working very hard and this is the result. We had no technical problems or issues in any of the sessions, or in the race and this is super-good. The lap times in the race were really impressive and we didn’t expect that. We can only do our best and as long as everyone sticks to the plan, sooner or later we will be getting the points.

Espargaro commented: “We always want more and more, but it’s the first race and we need to know what is our position and where we are right now. We need to understand that the 33 seconds [from the winner] where we were today is good. Honestly, we need to be happy because we did a good job and for sure this track was tough for us. During the pre-season, we were at other circuits and this was the hardest of them all for us.”

Smith said: “The lap times and the gap to the front guys were better than we expected and in those conditions, we saw a lot of guys making mistakes, so we’re very pleased with what we were able to do today. In general, we did the best we could, and a big thanks to the KTM and we’ll see what happens in Argentina.”

KTM’s mammoth grand prix assault continued to extend into Moto2 and Moto3 with Red Bull KTM Ajo, as Miguel Oliveira finished fourth in the mid-tier and lead Moto3 rider Niccolo Antonelli was seventh on Sunday.