It’s been a long run-up, but Franco Morbidelli seems to have finally finished the adaptation process to Ducati. The injury that occurred during the winter break prevented him from doing even a single day of testing on the Prima Pramac Racing Desmosedici GP24. So, after five years on the Yamaha, it took time to create the feeling with the Red, having only the race weekend sessions available.
The Grand Prix of San Marino and the Riviera di Rimini gave the impression that it could be the definitive turning point. In particular, Saturday was full of satisfaction for the Italian driver, who finished second in qualifying and third in the Sprint, finding a front row and a podium that he had been missing since the 2021 Spanish Grand Prix, therefore for more than three years.
In light of this, “Franky” saw the rain that arrived during the seventh lap of the long race at Misano as an opportunity. On dry ground he had already shown that he had what it takes to keep up with Pecco Bagnaia and Jorge Martin, so he decided to try and risk something when the asphalt of the circuit named after Marco Simoncelli started to get wet. Too bad that, immediately after setting the fastest lap, he lost the front of his Ducati at turn 1, seeing all his dreams of glory go up in smoke.
The balance of the Romagna weekend remains positive: “A mistake like that does not overshadow an extremely positive weekend. We were very fast and I was also in the race. I was looking for a way to overtake Martin and Bagnaia, so I thought that the moment of the rain would be perfect for me and I decided to slow down less than them. But it was a wrong choice, because I went down”.
Franco Morbidelli, Pramac Racing
Photo credit: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images
Among other things, he who is always very balanced, had no qualms in saying that if he attacked it was because he felt ready for something big: “It’s been a long time since I won and I clearly felt I had the potential today, so I took a risk, but it didn’t pay off.”
Overall, it was a complicated Sunday for Prima Pramac Racing, because on the same lap he crashed, his teammate Martin came back to get the bike with wet tires. A choice that later turned out to be wrong and relegated him to 15th place. Morbidelli was then asked if there could be a way as a team to better plan the strategy.
“It’s very difficult to have a plan when the conditions are so uncertain. It’s all in your hands really, so there’s very little to plan. You never know how things will evolve: it rains, it doesn’t rain. It rains a little, it rains a lot. Nobody knows. You can prepare scenarios, but you could get the wrong picture. In any case, I had never thought about going back.”
The focus is already on two weeks from now, when there will be a repeat here with the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix and therefore the ambitions will always be important: “Now we are at an excellent level here in Misano, so we will try to repeat ourselves and maybe even improve”.
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