Seriously injured then forfeited during the test MotoGP in Sepang, Raul fernandez was able to benefit from the IRTA tests in Qatar to show that he had regained all his speed, by ranking 5th.
But around ten days later, on the same Lusail circuit for the Qatar Grand Prix, the Trackhouse driver posted more heterogeneous results, ranging from 14th place in FP1 to first in Q1, including 11th during the Practice.
Finally 12th on the starting grid, Raul Fernandez gave us a much less stellar performance than that of his valiant teammate Alex Espargaro, finishing 14th in this first 2024 race.
He explains: “Honestly, I'm not happy. I'm happy because I feel like I've got some speed back, especially this morning. I was really, really happy with the time attack. Last year was something that gave us a lot of trouble. So I think that's a very good thing. But for me the problem was...
I think we need to work more on the electronic part. Now we have the material, we have the opportunity to do something good, Aprilia has given us something really, really, really good. I think our bike is working well. We saw with Aleix's race that we could do something really good. But we need to understand electronics a little better. I think we need to take out more potential and we need to understand what we need to do to improve, because I feel now the speed is there. I found the speed again, I found the feeling for the attacks on the clock, I found the feeling when I want to make rhythm, I can do it. but in racing, it's quite difficult and quite different with the aspirations and all that. We need to know why we are always a little behind others or other Aprilias. But in general, honestly, I'm happy because I have the speed, but I'm not happy with our sprint race. I feel like we used the tire too much, and in this category if you use the tire too much the last part of the race is a disaster, so the sprint race was a disaster. The last two laps were very difficult to manage and I can't imagine the long race if we don't work a little. »
But number 25 intends to see the glass half full and end on an optimistic note...
“Now I believe a lot in my team and in Aprilia, they will spend a lot of time to understand what happened. I'm sure tomorrow's race will be better. I am convinced of it. »
Results of the Sprint of the Qatar Grand Prix on the Losail circuit:
Credit rankings: MotoGP.com
