Source: Supplied.

Red Bull KTM duo Pol Espargaro and Bradley Smith delivered the Austrian brand its first MotoGP points in Argentina on Sunday, taking 14th and 15th positions respectively in what was a race of attrition.

It was another remarkable step forward for KTM’s factory grand prix project, however there is still a considerable way to go in development of the stunning RC16 for Espargaro and Smith to move further up the leader-board.

“Everybody should take all these positive things from what has happened here and I think the company especially should be motivated because we clearly see that there is a future,” commented team manager Mike Leitner. “If we do the correct things, we will have more interesting races where we can fight with the other manufacturers and riders. This is what was super-positive about today, because for the first time Pol was directly fighting with other riders.

“He could see the strong and the weak points of the bike even better and the lap times were acceptable. This was a brand new track for us and we have to be realistic. A lot of tracks we go to now will be new for us. We can only take the positives with us and try to learn and to improve. Then next year when we come back to these places we will have already reached another level in our package.”

Espargaro was encouraged by the progression: “What is the most important for the guys and the whole team is that this is the first time in history that KTM has taken points in MotoGP. We must be happy, but on the other side, I think we had the opportunity to do a little more. We are missing some speed in the straight to overtake the two guys I was fighting with, [Hector] Barbera and Tito [Rabat].

“It was a shame because I felt faster and we were faster today. We could have been in front of them at the end of the race, but it was impossible to do it. We still have some weak points, but on the other side, I congratulate the guys, they are doing a good job. We are making steps, for sure we are still far away but we are starting to see the light.”

Smith said: “Today was a great day for us as a team because we scored our first points with both riders. We made a good step forward from Qatar because there we weren’t able to fight with the group ahead of us. Here we could both stay with Barbera and Tito for most of the race, so we improved by another three to four seconds and I was really pleased with my race. Of course, we need to continue to improve, but right now we have to be happy with what we are doing race by race.”

Red Bull KTM Ajo’s Miguel Oliveira also reached a milestone for the manufacturer in Moto2, delivering the first podium in second using the KTM-developed intermediate class chassis after starting from pole position.