MotoGP | Pol Espargaro wild card with KTM at Red Bull Ring

The Austrian Grand Prix will be the home race for KTM, which for the occasion has decided to show up with an (almost) full roster. Along with the two regulars Brad Binder and Jack Miller, Pol Espargaro will also be on track, appearing as a wild card. After his presence at the Italian Grand Prix last June, the tester for the Mattighofen manufacturer is back to compete for a weekend and the Red Bull Ring has been chosen.

On Red Bull’s home track, Polyccio will run his second GP as a wild card of this 2024. At Mugello we had already seen him in action and there he achieved a 14th place in the Sprint and a 17th in the Sunday race. However, the result is not the objective of the Styrian weekend for Espargaro, who will continue the development work of the RC16, ever closer to the Ducatis, so far almost unbeatable.

The Red Bull Ring event, the second after the summer break, will be Pol Espargaro’s tenth in MotoGP. He has competed in a total of six race weekends in Austria with KTM and this will be his seventh (in 2016 he raced with the Tech3 Yamaha team, while in 2012 and 2022 he was with the HRC team).

Pol Espargaro, leader of the KTM project since its return to MotoGP in 2017, achieved his first podium at the Valencia Grand Prix in 2018, returning to the third step of the podium in Austria in 2020. That year, two races had been held due to the pandemic and Polyccio had finished third in the second of the two events, behind Miguel Oliveira, winner with the KTM of the Tech 3 team, and Jack Miller, then a Ducati rider with Pramac.

“I’m ready to come back!” says Espargaro. “Mugello was a special circuit to make my return with Red Bull KTM, but there’s nothing more special than the Red Bull Ring. The track, the place, the people and the atmosphere. As much as this Grand Prix means to KTM, it also feels a bit like my home race. I have good memories of fighting for wins there, but, as in Italy, the focus will be on getting out on the KTM RC16 and continuing our testing program. We’ll have to work, but I know the Austrian Grand Prix will be a lot of fun.”