Since the Sachsenring, we no longer recognize Lorenzo Fellon who moved seamlessly from the back of the grid to the leading group. His famous team manager can't believe it himself. And he's happy about it... Even if the race at Assen turned out to be not very productive for the Frenchman.
A weekend that seemed to start very well...
Moto3. Tatsuki in the first practice session almost set the track record until a few unreported drops of rain on the asphalt make it fly away.
On Saturday, he did not handle the official tests well and only managed to qualify with the 12th time. Sunday morning, the worst of the worst, my phone rings at 6:30 a.m.: Tatsuki is positive. The next three hours were marked by panic and general disbelief, as he had only had covid a few months before. We managed to get him to take two other samples, thanks to the efficiency of the staff, who gave us the result at 9:15 a.m.: it was a false positive. Between sighs of relief and haste, we prepare for the race despite the fact that we missed the warm up, which we will have to get used to since next year there will be no more.
Tatsuki had a good race. Two laps from the finish he achieved his best time in 1'41"7 and finished 5th after two other drivers were penalized for going on the green. Involuntarily I thought about what Massimo Matteoni, a former chief technician of Marco, a little gruff and direct but with heart, would have said if he had had Tatsu in his hands: “If you did this time with two laps to go with worn tires, what did you do the rest of the race, did you sleep?« . Which, in the Romagna dialect, would have had a different effect.
Tatsuki is coming out of a bad period and we forgive him for this time, he did a good job.
Fellon surprises me more and more, he begins to trust the team and understand that we are working for him and not against him. He started from 14th position, with one comeback to go in the race, but he made a mistake entering the first corner and found himself almost last. There is something to review, a lot to work on, but there is a lot of room for improvement.
MotoE. Casadei suffered a lot during testing because he doesn't know the reaction of the tires well and he doesn't trust them, but in the race he finished 6th with the same time as the first ones. He has to start higher in the grid because there are only a few laps and the level is very high. At first they all snubbed MotoE, the first year it was mainly riders, let's say “with a lot of experience”…But then they realized that it's not a game, it's not minimoto, and now strong, competitive riders are competing against each other. Six laps, however, is too much when fighting for victory. I will start a new campaign in MotoGP 2022: Stop the race by six laps for MotoE, to bring them down to three. I'm kidding !
On Sunday, the race management penalized four riders (including Fellon) by making them ride through: It's good, but for those who caused a very dangerous accident, they did nothing. I went to see them to point out that the driver who had caused the accident had already taken the checkered flag, which they had not noticed, but they did not agree to discuss. Damage !
On the other hand, I think the rule for the final chicane at Assen was one intelligent and fair decision; whoever went out had to pay a second penalty. And guess what: When there are clear rules and penalties, no one goes green.
Standings for the Moto3 Dutch Grand Prix at TT Assen:
Credit Ranking: MotoGP.com
