Franco Morbidelli finished the MotoGP Emilia Romagna GP in fifth, returning to good results. The Prima Pramac rider spent much of the Misano race behind Fabio Quartararo, but in the end, the Monster Energy Yamaha rider ran out of fuel, allowing Morbidelli to gain another position.
The Italian was satisfied with this result: ‘We struggled a lot during pretty much every session, but finally ending a struggling weekend in P5 it’s a great sign. Talking about the race, I was there behind Quartararo. I had more pace, I had more speed, but I couldn’t overtake him. I couldn’t find any spot to overtake him, so I was waiting there for some mistake or something, but actually he was very, very precise. But finally he finished the fuel, and he gave me one more position. And the top five is a great achievement starting from P10. It was tough, but finally it was a good weekend’.
When asked why he couldn’t overtake Quartararo, Morbidelli replied: ‘Fabio was pretty solid and pretty fast this weekend. We’ve seen him very fast basically in every session. They are working, they are getting better’.
The Ducati Desmosedici GP24 has good traction, but even so, the #21 couldn’t make the overtake, as he explained: ‘Fabio was really clever and good, and his style is to brake very deep. It would have been difficult to make a move on him. I already had a zero in the main race two weeks ago, I didn’t want to make any mess. So it was more hanging on the time when I was behind him. Actually I had fun, I checked him out all race long. It’s always nice to see Quartararo riding’.
Despite the difficulties over the weekend, after the warm-up, Morbidelli entered the race with confidence, as he mentioned: ‘I was confident. I was hoping that something was going to happen. Actually many things happened, and I was able to get to P5’.