Aspar Mahindra riders confident of strong weekend in Austin

The Moto3 World Championship heads into the third round this weekend without a standout dominator, after a wet weekend in Argentina saw those who shone under the lights in Qatar fading into the background. Brad Binder and Jorge Navarro have been the most consistent riders so far, with the Aspar Mahindra Team riders amongst those to have encountered differing fortunes on opposite sides of the world. The next challenge is the Circuit of the Americas, an impressive facility in Texas that hosts MotoGP for the fourth successive season, as the riders look to replicate the success of Danny Kent on top of the podium one year ago.
In Argentina the Aspar Mahindra riders fought against the elements and mechanical issues with their bikes, all of which combined to deny them the results they deserved. Nevertheless Jorge Martín came within touching distance of his best ever Grand Prix result, a seventh place at Aragón last year, and his goal in Austin is to repeat or improve on eighth. The Spaniard suffered all weekend in Argentina with gearbox problems but he is determined to work hard with his team and Mahindra to solve them. Pecco Bagnaia was unable to get close repeating to his podium from the opening round in Qatar but he is looking to defend a strong position in the championship this weekend, as he arrives in Austin lying fifth overall. 

 

Pecco Bagnaia: “At Austin I want to improve on my result from Argentina. I like the track a lot and last year didn't go too bad there. In Texas our bike will suffer a little less, which should be a big help because in the last race I was struggling to keep up with any of the other bikes on the straights. Luckily, even though I didn't score points we are still in a good position in the championship because the majority of the riders who were at the front in Qatar did not repeat their results in Argentina”.    


Jorge Martín: “I have always liked Austin – it has every kind of corner and some heavy braking zones. The bad thing is that some of the corners won't suit our bike but if we work hard and closely with Mahindra we can still have a good race. We travel to Austin on the back of almost equalling my best result in the World Championship so hopefully we can go one better this weekend.”