There is still one race to go on the Losail route, but this Qatar campaign is already making a mark on the mentality of a Franco Morbidelli plunged into doubt. With him, there is his Petronas team. The duo is falling from a height and the exploits of the 2020 season already seem far away. The worst is that no one is able to explain this sudden slump while everything is going better within the official Yamaha team. The situation is surprising even outside the Iwata clan, if we are willing to remember the feeling of a Reuben Xaus. But there is still one Grand Prix to go with that of Doha which Morbidelli approaches from tenth place on the grid.
It’s a Franco Morbidelli almost lost who was taking stock of his day on Saturday at Doha. After 10th place in qualifying for the second Grand Prix MotoGP au Qatar, he tried some explanations, but he had difficulty believing it himself: “ it's difficult to understand. The feeling is bad and it doesn't matter what we change. It doesn't get any better. Sometimes I'm faster, then one release later I'm not, even though we haven't changed anything ».
However, we will recall that Morbidely a changed everything on his Yamaha compared to last weekend. Questionable parts were discarded. Currently he rides the bike with which he won in Aragon in 2020. “ The situation is unclear and nothing is certain. But we won't surrender », explains the teammate of a Valentino Rossi whose situation has never been so depressing.
So there is still a lot of work on the program for Sunday: “ we are trying to make some final changes to improve the behavior of the bike. I hope the speed will be comparable to FP4. I hope I can fight for an interesting place ».
Franco Morbidelli: “I don’t know what’s going on here”
After so many days spent Qatar, the problems do not diminish, even if the data collected accumulates. Morbidely admits : " I'm confused. I don't know what's going on here. But I hope it will pass. I still enjoy working with the bike and the team, but it's tricky. However, every day with a motorbike here in Qatar is better than a day without a motorbike ».
Morbidely hopes for a magic solution » to his problems. But he also says: “ I'm going to see how the bike behaves. I'm not a pilot who does anything crazy. I want to limit the damage during the race and not take too many risks ". His problem is that he cannot criticize any particular component or part: “ I don't blame the tires, the chassis, or the swingarm. We just don't know. What I know for sure is that the only thing left is the bad feeling. No matter what we change ».
However, Morbidely qualified directly for Q2 and in the darkness where he still had big problems the previous week, he seemed to be doing a little better. This should give him hope for the second Grand Prix of the year, especially as the smoke signals that his Yamaha given on Friday were not visible on Saturday…
MotoGP Qatar 2 J2: times
