by STEFANO OLLANU
Qatar world hub
As many enthusiasts will remember, the Qatar Grand Prix of the MotoGP class last November 19th, was a key stage in the world championship battle between Francesco Bagnaia and Jorge Martin, who forcefully took the road to Chivasso.
Martin had won the Sprint and was at the start of the Sunday race having halved his gap in the standings to just 7 points, with the well-founded belief of being able to further shorten the gap at the end of the 22 scheduled laps. But ever since the traffic lights went out, Martin found himself struggling with a set of tires that were probably not the best and he was unable to do better than 10th place at the finish line and saw his hopes of a comeback dwindle to nothing, leaving Lusail at -21 with just one weekend to go.
The controversies with Michelin
Both Jorge Martin and his team – Prima Pramac Racing – underlined that they had found no anomalies either on the bike or on the rider's way of riding, agreeing that something had not worked on the Michelins mounted on the GP23 number 89. The French tire dealer is strongly defended, underlining that it has not found any anomaly on its covers, replying even a few days ago by saying that “blaming the tires is the simplest thing”. At that point there was no shortage of new replies from the Gino Borsoi (team principal)-Martin duo, with the Spaniard saying he was surprised by the sentences, underlining however that he understood Michelin's need “to cover their backs.”
Dall'Igna's point of view
The point of view of the general director of Ducati Corse then came to close the matter, Gigi Dall'Igna, in the statements reported by the Swiss of Speedweeksympathetic towards Michelin: “It's not easy to make tires that are the same as each other. And it is equally difficult to produce engines that are always the same, we have the same problem. There is always an engine that has a few more horsepower or that breaks or works a little less well. These things are part of racing“. Dall'Igna's speech then becomes more specific and evidently addresses Martin: “A pilot has to accept these things. Of course, if it happens in the decisive phase of the championship, it hurts more. But you don't win or lose a world championship because of a tyre. You win or lose because of the mistakes made throughout the season. If you want to improve, you have to focus on these mistakes and take a step forward, perhaps trying to win the title with a race to spare.”
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