At the end of a Spanish Grand Prix masterfully dominated by Valentino Rossi, the big winner of the meeting, Jorge Lorenzo, put his defeat down to a rear tire with little grip. An assessment which does not turn out to be shared by his own team since both Wilco Zeelenberg and Ramon Forcada first explain their driver's inability to respond by a less developed talent in controlling the throttle. Was there a sense of unease in Jerez?
One is chief mechanic and the other team manager and both are directly attached to the services of Jorge Lorenzo. For ages already. So much so that when the driver explains in a certain way the reasons which led him to let slip a victory to which he was very attached, we expect an echo from the duo in the pits. Except that after Jerez, he didn't come. Worse, we paid tribute to the opponent who is also a Yamaha teammate.
First salvo with Ramon Forcada, relayed by Motorsport.com : " we were able to see different styles of drivers during this race. And it's possible that this is because Valentino started running without the help of electronics ". As we can see, it starts off strong, but Ramon still has something under his belt: “ Valentino was able to manage the little grip he had with the throttle grip. Everyone was spinning a lot, including on the straight in fifth gear. When this happens, the electronics we currently have are not advanced enough to compensate ».
The second tour is offered by Wilco Zeelenberg : " everyone thought that the end of the race would determine the fate of the Grand Prix, but it was decided within the first 14 laps. Valentino then built up a lead of three seconds and then the tires deteriorated. The goal was for everyone to survive until the end. But we have never seen Valentino suffer, not even to the limit. These three seconds allowed him to manage and think about the bike ».
« Grip was limited on Sunday, the bikes were driven in a different way to that experienced during testing. In these difficult circumstances, each driver has their own solution and it is clear that Valentino has a lot of experience ". However, with five World Champion titles, Por Fuera is not the beginner of the year. But the opinion of his own square in the box is unanimous: the rear tire has nothing to do with it. Valentino Rossi simply drove better. A regular defeat.
We will recall that Jorge Lorenzo has already had trouble with Forked in his career, even thinking for a moment of getting rid of it. Today the Mallorcan is assured of being a Ducati rider while Red will stay with Yamaha for two more years. As for the question of who Lorenzo will bring with him to the reds, we can already imagine that Zeelenberg et Forked are no longer favorites for transfer…