With the fifth fastest time in qualifying, Franco Morbidelli consolidated the fantastic overall performance of his Petronas Yamaha SRT team with Fabio Quartararo's pole position. It also highlighted the good behavior of the Yamahas on the Ricardo Tormo Circuit, with alongside Fabio first and Franco fifth Maverick Viñales in fourth position, these three Yamaha riders supervising the Honda of Marc Márquez and the Ducati of Jack Miller.
Franco is having a great season, with constant progress, but he is put under the media spotlight by the extraordinary performances of his teammate fabio quartararo. However, the Italian-Brazilian proved that he too could obtain excellent results, in particular his second qualifying times for the Grand Prix of Jerez and Motegi. In racing, he obtained four fifth places at Austin, Assen, Silverstone and Misano. In total he has to his credit this year 11 finishes among the first 10, that is to say in fact in all the GPs that he has finished except two that he has finished eleventh. This set of good results associated with the performances of his teammate El Diablo allowed their Petronas Yamaha SRT team to seize the crown of best independent team, which was a magnificent result for a rookie team, that is to say say beginner in the MotoGP category.
Here in Valencia, “Francky Morbido” showed himself to be competitive from the start, finishing fifth in the first free practice session in 1'31.658, 0.203 behind Fabio Quartararo's best time and 0.063 behind Maverick Vinales fourth. He finished the day fifth in 1'31.199, 0.464 behind Fabio.
On Saturday morning, he closed the free practice still in fifth position, in 1'30.723, 0.491 behind Quartararo and 0.093 behind Valentino Rossi fourth. His qualification was rather acrobatic: going out into the gravel trap outside during the qualifying session – then in fifth position – without falling, he finished in this place in 1'30.449, 0.471 behind Fabio. Could he have done better without this incident? This is not certain because Maverick Viñales fourth preceded him by 0.271.
Franco had a great time on the Ricardo Tormo Circuit, as in six appearances he reached the podium twice. Third in 2016 on a Kalex Moto2 from the Marc VDS team, he finished second the following year on the same machine. Last year, for his first MotoGP race on this track, he qualified fifteenth on the Honda of the EG 0,0 Marc VDS team but failed to make it to the checkered flag. He fell when he was fifth, but was nonetheless crowned “Rookie of the Year”.
According to Franco Morbidelli, “Apart from FP4, I finished all the sessions this weekend in fifth position. We chase the leaders and try to improve as much as possible, but in reality our pace is already similar to the leaders. But there are a lot of people capable of doing the same times, so I think we're going to have a very interesting race. »
“I was hoping to do something better but I did a test on the bike which didn't pay off much, and especially when braking I didn't feel the best. Anyway, I collected a lot of data for tomorrow's race, I hope to be faster. The goal is to get out of fifth position. In the race, I hope to improve. »
“For tires, the choice is between hard and soft, but all the compounds, in fact, are very similar. I still have doubts about today's session in FP4 where I was constant and regular but the race is another thing. I will have to be more solid when braking. »
“I'm pretty fast. In FP4 my pace was good but there are a lot of other drivers going like me and so it will be interesting to see how the race goes tomorrow. »
“Marc has good pace, but I hope he will have problems with the front end tomorrow in the race, although surely he is in the best position. »
“Since Misano, the four Yamaha riders have often been in the top 5. We fight among ourselves but above all we fight against Fabio and for that we really have to commit a lot. »
“I hope that next year will be a confirmation for me and that everything will be better than this year. Ramon Forcada and I will meet again for another year and the work will be better. In Moto2, when I was in the same team for two years, I won the World Championship. »
Qualification results:
1. Fabio QUARTARARO Petronas Yamaha SRT 1'29.978
2. Marc MÁRQUEZ Repsol Honda Team 1'30.010 0.032 / 0.032
3. Jack MILLER Pramac Racing 1'30.086 0.108 / 0.076
4. Maverick VIÑALES Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP 1'30.178 0.200 / 0.092
5. Franco MORBIDELLI Petronas Yamaha SRT 1'30.449 0.471 / 0.271
6. Andrea DOVIZIOSO Ducati Team 1'30.511 0.533 / 0.062
7. Joan MIR Team SUZUKI ECSTAR 1'30.573 0.595 / 0.062
8. Alex RINS Team SUZUKI ECSTAR 1'30.595 0.617 / 0.022
9. Cal CRUTCHLOW LCR Honda CASTROL 1'30.726 0.748 / 0.131
10. Danilo PETRUCCI Ducati Team 1'30.771 0.793 / 0.045
11. Pol ESPARGARÓ Red Bull KTM Factory Racing 1'30.908 0.930 / 0.137
12. Valentino ROSSI Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP 1'30.954 0.976 / 0.046
13. Johann ZARCO LCR Honda IDEMITSU 1'30.826 Q1
14. Michele PIRRO Ducati Team 1'30.949 Q1
15. Aleix ESPARGARÓ Aprilia Racing Team Gresini 1'30.972 Q1
16. Jorge LORENZO Repsol Honda Team 1'31.295 Q1
17. Mika KALLIO Red Bull KTM Factory Racing 1'31.383 Q1
18. Tito RABAT Reale Avintia Racing 1'31.507 Q1
19. Iker LECUONA Red Bull KTM Tech 3 1'31.658 Q1
20. Andrea IANNONE Aprilia Racing Team Gresini 1'31.714 Q1
21. Karel ABRAHAM Reale Avintia Racing 1'31.815 Q1
22. Hafizh SYAHRIN Red Bull KTM Tech 3 1'31.839 Q1
Reference times:
Test record: 1'29.401 by Jorge Lorenzo (Movistar Yamaha MotoGP) in 2016
Lap record: 1'31.171 by Jorge Lorenzo (Movistar Yamaha MotoGP) in 2016
Best top speed: 335,9 km/h for Andrea Dovizioso (Ducati Team) in 2015
Provisional ranking of the World Championship:
1 Marc MÁRQUEZ–Honda 395 points
2 Andrea DOVIZIOSO–Ducati 256
3 Maverick VIÑALES–Yamaha 201
4 Alex RINS–Suzuki 194
5 Danilo PETRUCCI–Ducati 176
6 Fabio QUARTARARO–Yamaha 172
7 Valentino ROSSI–Yamaha 166
8 Jack MILLER–Ducati 149
9 Cal CRUTCHLOW–Honda 133
10 Franco MORBIDELLI–Yamaha 115
11 Pol ESPARGARÓ–KTM 94
12 Joan MIR–Suzuki 83
13 Takaaki NAKAGAMI–Honda 74
14 Aleix ESPARGARÓ–Aprilia 56
15 Francesco BAGNAIA–Ducati 54
16 Andrea IANNONE–Aprilia 43
17 Miguel OLIVEIRA–KTM 33
18 Johann ZARCO–Honda 30
19 Jorge LORENZO–Honda 25
20 Tito RABAT–Ducati 18
21 Stefan BRADL–Honda 16
22 Michele PIRRO–Ducati 9
23 Hafizh SYAHRIN–KTM 8
24 Sylvain GUINTOLI–Suzuki 7
25 Karel ABRAHAM–Ducati 7
26 Mika KALLIO–KTM 3
27 Bradley SMITH–Aprilia 0
Photos © Petronas Yamaha SRT
