Weekend of growth: this is how Franco Morbidelli defines the French Grand Prix, the fifth round of the 2024 MotoGP season where he achieved his best result aboard the Ducati. The Roman is slowly starting to get to know the Desmosedici GP24 and, after gaining direct Q2 and starting from ninth place, in Sunday’s race he managed to battle and then cross the finish line in seventh position.
“We must be satisfied with this race, especially with the speed we had, which was enough to get back up and recover from another bad start in which I lost many positions,” explained the Prima Pramac rider in the usual meeting with the media at the end of the race. “However, we are focused on solving this starting problem. We hope to arrive as soon as possible, that’s what we’re aiming for and we have what it takes to throw ourselves into the interesting fight.”
At Le Mans, Morbidelli continued to familiarize himself with his bike and the excellent result on Sunday is a good confirmation. However, the Italian-Brazilian maintains that there are still some aspects to improve in order to return to fighting for the top positions: “Unfortunately I still lack a bit of positivity, especially on the first lap, to be in the rhythm of the others. I also struggle a little more in the practice sessions. It’s not just the start, but also the first laps.”
The heart-pounding race saw the top three fighting for victory until the checkered flag, but there was no shortage of spectacle behind them too and Morbidelli was the protagonist of a duel with Aleix Espargaro. The Aprilia rider objected to the Pramac rider’s conduct, but Morbido is keen to underline the importance of duels in MotoGP and, above all, that in the battle the two never came into contact.
“I passed Aleix at the last corner, saw a space and jumped in. Enough. He didn’t like it so much, but we didn’t touch each other. There was nothing. Lately it’s been very difficult to understand what overtaking can or cannot be done. In my opinion, overtaking can be done where you don’t touch each other and then in any case this is a sport where contact during overtaking can happen. Sometimes you can touch each other, but if no one ends up on the ground… I don’t know, the topic of overtaking is very interesting and one that the stewards above all must follow carefully. In my opinion their current vision is quite correct and which I share. And in any case the contact between me and Espargaro did not happen”, underlined Morbidelli.
#MotoGP #Morbidelli #difficult #understand #overtakings
