Austin, MotoGP: Régis Laconi's point of view on the Grand Prix “It was a great pleasure to see Valentino Rossi at this level”

Winner of the Valencia GP in 500 in 1999, one of only 3 French people in the history of motorcycle racing in this case, Vice-World Champion in 2004 Superbike with Ducati, Régis agreed to talk to us about his vision of the last Grand Price. Thank you for sharing with us his knowledge, his skill and his boundless enthusiasm for our favorite sport.

We therefore placed him in the role of schoolmaster when handing in the reports, asking him to kindly illustrate the following statements:

Congratulations :

“Congratulations automatically go to Alex Rins for the beauty of his victory. Not only is it their first win in the MotoGP class, but it’s also an achievement for Suzuki as it’s been a while since they last won.”

“It’s a whole set of things. Rins was really good throughout the race. It even went up a little. In my eyes, he was easy behind Rossi for a long time. He really waited for the right moment to pass it and achieve victory. I think Rins and the Suzuki were good in this race.”

Roll of honor :

“The honor roll is for Valentino Rossi, although it's been a while since he won and I hope it happens to him soon. He was really good in this race, as well as the Yam and that’s good because it means that the Yam has good performance.”

“He really tried everything until the last lap to try to get this victory. He managed to perform well in corners where he was not always comfortable during previous laps. He only made two or three small mistakes during the race. It was a great pleasure to see him at this level and it gives great hope for the rest of the season.”

Encouragement:

« Jack Miller deserves this encouragement because he had a great race. He struggled a bit in my opinion due to the tire choice he made (soft at the front and soft at the rear). He was thus able to perform well at the start but a little less during around the last third of the race.”

“It was still a good result from him because he got on the podium. He has had consistency since the start of the Championship. It’s beautiful to see and it’s a pleasure.”

Can do better :

“Jorge Lorenzo clearly should have done better. Of course he had a technical problem on his bike, but in the end he didn't perform well at all throughout the weekend.

“Frankly, it must be starting to get complicated in his head. Complicated also for Honda, because they must not be amused to have signed Lorenzo with such mediocre performances as that. We see that he’s not there.”

“It took him a long time to ride fast at Ducati, so he needs to find the trigger in his head really quickly, because it's not going in the right direction at all.”

The highlight:

“The beautiful dive from Márquez who was 3.6 ahead, so who was not pushed by a driver just behind him who was putting pressure on him. He had a margin of almost 4 seconds, which is quite a significant lead.”

“He was almost halfway through the race, so everything was going in the right direction. We can clearly see that he did a great job: he completely screwed up by braking too late, that's for sure, and he was in the process of missing the rope, which meant that he had gone into the car much too hard. turn. In addition, this circuit is very bumpy, which did not help him, and he unfortunately fell flat on his stomach.”

The pleasant surprise:

“For me the good surprise comes from Dovizioso because he took the lead in the World Championship. He succeeded on an extremely complicated circuit. He failed to be well. He managed to do a session that wasn't too bad, but it's the first race of the year where he's really not comfortable."

“Although he finished far from first in time, he still managed to finish fourth and collect a good number of points for the Championship. The fact that Márquez went down on his stomach allowed him to take the lead in the world rankings, which is a pretty cool reality and quite a pleasure.”

The overall score of the Grand Prix:

“I’m going to be a little naughty again by giving it a 13/20. Last time, I put 12, now I would put a 13 because it wasn't very nice to see because of the surface of the circuit and not the drivers.

“We would have liked to see a little more fighting between the drivers but, and I would like to point out, this circuit is very bumpy and with a bit of strange grip. Visually, I saw the drivers driving on the tarmac which has several colors. The surface of the circuit is not of high quality and that did not help us to see a race as pleasant as it could have been.”