The Petronas driver had a race as eventful as his week but knew how to make the most of the situation to finish in the top 10.
Franco Morbidelli is far from having experienced the same Sunday as last week, when he won the first victory of his career in MotoGP. Weakened by a week of intestinal problems which caused him to miss a day of testing, he slowly recovered over the days without having recovered 100% by the time he started the race.
However, he managed to overcome his problems in practice to secure an automatic place in Q2, where he finished eighth. Even if he was not able to attack as much as he wanted, he was satisfied and was counting on plenty of rest in order to be able to give the best of himself in the race today.
After 27 grueling laps, the Italian driver leaves far from being completely healed: “I still haven't recovered from my stomach problems, I've been very ill. I have to thank my dietician who gave me the right foods to allow me to have enough energy for this race. I've been feeling better and better throughout the weekend but I'm going to go home and check it out to see if anything can help me get better faster. I hope to be 100% in Barcelona. »
Despite his health concerns, Morbidelli can congratulate himself on having gone to the end but above all on having made a superb comeback even though things had become very complicated in the first lap. Carried away by Aleix Espargaró, who made a mistake, the Petronas driver managed to stay on his wheels but found himself last and dropped out of the group. Ignoring his weakening and his bad luck, he went for ninth place at the finish, a result of which he was the first to be surprised. “I’m happy because I didn’t expect to finish ninth”, did he declare.
“I think we had a chance to be on the podium, but unfortunately another driver caught me on the first lap. I lost a lot of time and had a small problem with the bike but I was able to make a good comeback. Thanks to the team as they did an incredible job with very little input from me this weekend. We now aim to arrive in Barcelona well prepared and ready to attack. »
Morbidelli moved up to fifth place in the championship, just 20 points behind the leader. With a top 10 separated by only 27 points, this 2020 season is still as close as ever and the Italian is now well and truly in the running for the title, like his teammate, Fabio Quartararo.
MotoGP Misano 2 J3: classification
Classification credit: MotoGP.com
