Franco Morbidelli finished his Grand Prix of the Americas better than he started it. He was expected to turn the corner after a solid Argentinian performance that we had not seen for almost two seasons, and his start in Austin was initially disappointing. Again in the second part of the peloton on Friday and Saturday, he still knew how to take advantage of the circumstances to bring back the points for eighth place, at the end of the main race on Sunday. With only thirteen riders at the finish, it was first necessary to survive in this Texan event and the Yamaha official knew how to do it, thus saving the essentials.
Franco Morbidelli had dominated his teammate fabio quartararo during the last Argentine Grand Prix, but things have returned to their known order at Yamaha for several months already in Texas. The Italian-Brazilian has once again caused concern in a context where he must absolutely convince his employers at every moment who are closely considering his succession at the end of this year. Nevertheless Morbidely was able to do well during the Grand Prix itself, crossing the finish line in Austin in eighth place.
A result achieved with this assumed strategy: “ I immediately managed to be aggressive, even if the sensations on the bike were not as perfect as I would have liked, especially at the front Says Morbidely. " Having seen so many riders crash in front of me didn't help me, and perhaps for fear of falling, me too I saved more than I should have. As things stood, it was better to limit the risks with an eighth place than not to finish the race at all ».
Franco Morbidelli: “ the Yamaha suffers in the flying lap, but we can have a say on the pace »
As is now essential in contemporary MotoGP, Franco Morbidelli had sealed his fate on Friday: “ Grid position didn't really help. We lost our chances on Friday because we didn't go straight into Q2 and we started too far back. Then we worked hard to make our way forward ».
But the teammate of fabio quartararo quits Austin with a good feeling all the same: “ it was definitely a better race and better performance than Friday and Saturday. Track temperatures were slightly different on Sunday, and the track itself certainly doesn't help much in terms of grip. I think part of the problem lies precisely in the ambiguous nature of these two factors, which, by not allowing us to collect precise data, has probably created problems up front. If it's cold, you can fall even without straining, as happened to me this morning during the warm-up ».
Then he finishes: “ it's good that we were able to show a decent performance in the race. We have to take that eighth place and we have to analyze the data we have collected here. Then we will arrive well in Jerez and we will be ready to fight ". Because he believes in his Yamaha : " she suffers in the thrown lap, Pecco and Ducati are the benchmark for speed, but we can have a say in the rhythm “he assures. " Personally, I gave back two tenths to my neighbor in the box, but Pecco put us 1 second in terms of speed. Currently, the Ducati is the reference motorcycle ". Certainly, but it also falls. After Austin, Franco Morbidelli is tenth in the championship, one point behind Brad Binder, and tied with George Martin with 29 units.
MotoGP, Austin J3: classification
