Franco Morbidelli closed the first day of free practice for the French Grand Prix, fifth stage of the 2023 World Championship, with a disappointing 17th best time.
The Italian-Brazilian began his Friday with the aim of confirming the settings put to the test during the IRTA test in Jerez almost two weeks ago. Then he didn't have the afternoon he was hoping for. A crash at Turn 14 during the one-hour afternoon session cost the number 21 driver significant time.
Franco Morbidelli: “ it was a complicated day »
Fortunately unhurt, the official Yamaha spent the rest of the second free practice session adjusting his bike's settings. He pushed again in the final minutes of the session and finished the afternoon practice in 16th place with a time of 1'32.143. But in the combined ranking, he is one place less…
« It was a complicated day » regrets the teammate of a fabio quartararo hardly more enthusiastic about his M1. “ We tried some solutions to improve the package but unfortunately nothing works. Tomorrow we need to go back to a base we know, a more standard package, and see if we can extract a little more potential ». Franco Morbidelli took his fourth Grand Prix victory in 2017 in Moto2 at Le Mans en route to the title. He finished P7 in MotoGP in 2019, his best result in the category in La Sarthe so far.
MotoGP France J1: ranking
Credit classification motogp.com
