As at every Grand Prix since the start of the season, Hervé Poncharal is kind enough to share with us his vision of the last Grand Prix.
After having declared to us his total confidence in its engines Yamaha , here he addresses the consequences of what will remain as the highlight of the MotoGP race; the abandonment of Valentino Rossi following the breakdown of his engine.
Hervé Poncharal: “God knows I'm not a die-hard fan of Valentino Rossi, but God knows I also say that he has enormous talent, incredible will and extraordinary longevity, and everyone recognizes that.
But he was still often lucky, like for example in Argentina when he was 5th then found himself 2nd when Vinales then the two Ducatis crashed. So often, the wheel of fortune, in the Italian sense of the term, has turned to one's advantage.
And there, there was such an atmosphere, it was so beautiful, there was such fervor, such clamor every time he was in Lorenzo's heart, it was hot, it was full , you felt it and you were part of it. And these things affect me. And frankly, when he gave up, all of a sudden, wow..., apart from the sound of the engines, there wasn't a fly flying. It broke everything!
And when I left, late in the evening, I saw the guys who had just spent three or four crazy days, partying all night, reddened by the sun during the day, exhausted. They were all on foot to reach their vehicles, with their little shopping carts in which there were their sleeping bags, their folded tent and all their equipment…. (gasping) You felt the full weight of fatigue, and more than fatigue, weighing on their shoulders. It was the yellow army in defeat, and yes, it touched me.
If he were still 5 or 6, we would have “well, there you go”, but there, clearly, he could win it. When you experience it there, you are sad, and it ruined the party. »
That would have been the pinnacle, since up until then, everything was perfect...
“Yes, so far the weekend has been incredible. I had never seen so many people at Mugello. It was incredible. And above all an atmosphere like we've never seen, with such a yellow tide. Everything worked; We had terrible weather on Thursday, the weather got better from Friday onwards, Valentino took pole, etc… Everything was perfect and it was truly a crazy weekend.
But hey, it’s part of the race…”
The fact that Yamaha breaks two engines in front of its president, is that confusing?
“The president you are talking about was of course informed about Lorenzo, but did not see him because he arrived on site after the warm up. On the other hand, he saw Rossi's, that's clear, and some said, jokingly, that it would have been chic if the smoke was yellow... (laughs).
What do you want, whether the president is there or not, it doesn't change anything, but I still saw him jump when Lorenzo passed Marquez just before the line; it was still a mano a mano with the Honda group which is Yamaha's number one competitor. Hence my Sunday phrase, “Yamaha was killed by an engine, but won on the engine.”
In the end, President Yanagi was happy to see a Yamaha win ahead of a Honda and a Ducati, since he had come to see that, and he also knows, as Guy Coulon says, that “Mechanical means trouble”. He knows that it is a circuit where the engines are extremely stressed and where you have to perform well. So these are things that can happen, but on the other hand, he doesn't need to slap anyone on the wrist, because Yamaha did "1 and 2" in the 2015 championship, are currently "1 and 3" , and have won four out of six races this year.
As you can imagine, they will now open the engines, analyze and try to understand if it is a part from a subcontractor that may be defective, if it is something else, and find as every time that we face this kind of problem. Everyone breaks engines, even if it's not frequent since last year we did the whole season with only 4 engines. Let's wait and trust Yamaha. »
To be continued…
