Red Bull Grand Prix of the United States: Race Report
The MotoGP World Championship arrived in Texas for Round 3 of the season.
It was a weekend of clear progress for the team. Both riders secured direct passage to Q2 on Friday and lined up on the fourth and sixth rows of the grid on Saturday. In the race, both delivered solid performances, making their way through the field.
Eddie O’Shea started 18th on the grid and dropped to 20th on the opening lap. He gradually moved up through the field and was inside the top 15 by mid-distance.
O’Shea maintained a consistent pace and, by the chequered flag, had gained nine positions to finish 11th. It is his best result to date in the Moto3 World Championship and reflects the progress he has made in recent rounds.
He leaves Austin with five valuable points added to his tally, building on those already scored earlier in the season, and with growing confidence in both performance and consistency.
Eddie O’Shea: Very good weekend. I’m super happy with the progress we’ve made since the first round. Qualifying was the best of the season so far, and there’s still work to do to keep improving. Overall, I’m super happy with the race and looking forward to the next round in Jerez.
Joel Kelso started from the fourth row and spent much of the race battling inside the top ten. By mid-race, he had moved into the top six.
At the front, Quiles opened a small gap to lead, while Pini and Perrone held the remaining podium positions just ahead of Carpe and Fernández in fourth and fifth. Kelso ran sixth with six laps to go, 4.8 seconds off the pair directly ahead.
His race came to an early end on lap nine, however, when he crashed in sector two while trying to close the gap to the riders in front.
Kelso left Austin with mixed emotions, as the result did not fully reflect the step forward he had shown with the Honda across the weekend.
Joel Kelso: Overall, it’s a shame about the crash. Crashing while fighting for P6 is never easy to take, but the positive is that we made a huge step, battling for the top 6–7 positions, which is really encouraging considering where we came from. Let’s keep working on this, and our time will come. I’m sure it will.
The team can take plenty of positives from Austin. Both riders showed clear progress, and the experience gained here will be key as attention now turns to Jerez, Spain, in three weeks’ time, where the European leg of the season begins.