Franco Morbidelli had one of the best days of the MotoGP season so far yesterday, setting the seventh fastest time in the practice session for the Americas GP. It was a position achieved with his last lap, which already places him in the second phase of qualifying in Austin and is proof of the good adaptation he is having to the Ducati.
The rider confirmed that he was pleased with Friday: ‘It was a positive day. We were able to be at the top positions all day and especially in the attack on the stopwatch; it was really positive. We made the improvements we expected to make since Portimão, and I am happy, the team deserves this. We continue to work and continue to try to improve‘.
After the injury that kept him out of all pre-season tests, Morbidelli explained that the process of adapting to the team and the bike takes time in the Grand Prix:
– Basically I have no experience on the bike and I have no kilometers on the bike, because if you think about a race day you do 20 laps, 25 at most, while on a test day you do 80, 90, 100. And I missed five of those days where you do 100 laps. And surely 100 laps would have helped me get used to the new bike. Instead, I had to use the 20-lap days to get used to the new bike, plus the race days. So, you leave some things behind. But I took this slowly – not easily, but we took it the right way with the team.
And the Italian ensured that signs of progress are visible, emphasizing the determination to take advantage of the potential that the Desmosedici GP24 has: ‘We are taking steps, and that was what we expected to do and what we hope to do and continue to do until we reach the full potential of this bike, which is consistently fighting for the top positions’.
