Pedro Acosta stood on the podium at the Portugal and Americas GPs of MotoGP, contributing greatly to what is one of the best starts to a season ever for Tech3 – not only in the current GasGas Tech3 partnership, but since the beginning of the MotoGP era in 2002.
After three rounds, Hervé Poncharal’s team has accumulated 61 points and is in fifth place in the championship (only seven behind the other rider, Augusto Fernández). It is clearly the best start since Tech3 began its partnership with KTM in 2019. Until then, the best they had achieved after three rounds was 18 points – twice, including last year with the Sprint races.
In the Sprint races, GasGas Tech3 scored 11 points and, without them, would have 50 points in the championship – a comparison that we will use for context, as Sprint races were only introduced in 2023. Without them, the best start for Tech3 with KTM had been in 2020, with 18 points in three rounds – meaning that even then, it was far below the 50 points that the team has accumulated this year considering only the first three main races.
This record has only been surpassed three times since 2002: in 2008, at the time with Yamaha, they had 51 points; in 2012 they had amassed 72 points; and in 2017 they reached 63 points in three rounds.
En termes de résultats proprement dits, la différence est encore plus évidente. Ni avec Yamaha, ni avec KTM, Tech3 n’avait réussi à obtenir deux podiums lors des trois premières courses – exploit qui doit beaucoup, il est clair, à Acosta, avec la troisième place au Portugal suivie de la deuxième position à Austin. La fois où il était le plus proche de réaliser la même performance était en 2012, lorsque Andrea Dovizioso avait commencé la saison avec trois top cinq consécutifs.
