Franco Morbidelli did not finish the MotoGP Catalan GP race. Seven laps from the end, he suffered a crash that forced him to retire, when he was sixth after recovering from an earlier mistake.
The Prima Pramac Racing Italian talked about that first mistake, which cost him a lot of time: ‘It’s a shame, because I was trying to control everything, but then at one point I made a big mistake when I was fifth and left the rear device activated, making the whole Sector 4 with a low bike, and I lost a second – and then I lost the position to Brad [Binder] and to Marc [Márquez]’.
Without giving up, Morbidelli launched himself into the recovery, but admitted that he may have been too aggressive: ‘Then I was trying to recover step by step, but maybe I was too aggressive in turn ten, and simply lost the front. It was a small crash, but enough to abandon the goal which was the podium’.
With a good competitive level in Barcelona, #21 regretted only the mistakes made: ‘The speed was great, this weekend we had a great speed. We just made three big mistakes, which are the crash in the second attack on the stopwatch, the big mistake in the middle of the race that made me lose a second, and then the crash, of course, in the final part of the race. But we can aim for something good, I am happy’.
Regarding tire management, Morbidelli commented that he had no problems: ‘I was feeling very good. I was ready to make another attack and go back to a 1m40s average – which was the pace that the top two were maintaining. So, I was aiming for something good’.
