Challenging Americas Grand Prix for WithU Yamaha RNF MotoGP Team

10-04-2022

Challenging Americas Grand Prix for WithU Yamaha RNF MotoGP Team

Andrea Dovizioso scores the final point in Texas, while Darryn Binder completes one of the toughest rounds.

It was a sunny but windy race day for the fourth round of the MotoGP World Championship at the Circuit of the Americas in Texas today. Yet, the WithU Yamaha RNF MotoGP Team pair of Andrea Dovizioso and Darryn Binder crossed the finish line after 20 demanding laps, facing hard conditions.

Dovizioso, who started the American round in P15, completed lap one in 16th position. The Italian fought hard to keep his place, but struggled to find a decent rhythm aboard his Yamaha YZR-M1. On lap nine, he lost another place, but could improve his lap times towards the end of the race. Before the start of the final lap, he reclaimed P16 and was battling Franco Morbidelli for the final championship point in the race. He finally crossed the line in P16, but eventually got promoted to 15th and with this managed to score a point.

On the other side of the WithU Yamaha RNF MotoGP Team garage, Darryn Binder had to start last after a tough day in the office on Saturday. Nevertheless, the MotoGP rookie took every opportunity to learn and understand about the demanding race distance at COTA. He made up one position after the start and moved forward to the top 20 around half distance, fighting with his fellow rookies until with four laps to go he got in trouble with some electronic issues, had to stop at the pits and afterwards continued and finished the race in P22.

With another lesson learned, the entire WithU Yamaha RNF MotoGP Team is looking forward to return home for a week and kick off the European season in less than a fortnight in Portimao, Portugal.

Andrea Dovizioso

WithU Yamaha RNF MotoGP Racing Team

“I expected a bit more. I’m honestly very disappointed. My feeling is not improving while trying to reduce the gap and I can’t be happy about that. I tried to be consistent, but when you don’t ride in a relaxed way, you use more energy in the practices already, so I didn’t have a lot of energy left for the race itself. I was fighting with Marini, Oliveira and Morbidelli, but we haven’t been fast and that’s not a good feeling. At the end, we got one point, but the 29 seconds is the fact that we have to check. The gap to the top is big. I’m not happy, but I didn’t have the feeling to be any faster.”

Darryn Binder

WithU Yamaha RNF MotoGP Racing Team

“All together it has been a difficult weekend, I crashed a couple of times, which definitely did not help with my confidence going into the race. Anyway, I started the race and made a mistake at the beginning, which made me fall back a couple of position. I then caught back up to a couple of guys and was fighting with the other rookies for a while, unfortunately we had a little technical issue and I had to stop at the pit lane with three laps to go. Overall, I felt like I learned a lot from this weekend. It’s been a really hard weekend physically and riding this bike around this track is super demanding. I’m just glad I was able to get a lot of laps and now I know exactly on what I need to work on, get stronger and fitter and be ready for Portimao.”

Razlan Razali

WithU Yamaha RNF MotoGP Racing Team, Founder and Team Principal

“Overall, it was a difficult weekend for both of our riders, Andrea and Darryn. However, we are a bit happy with a single point we finally got from Andrea. It was a tough race for Darryn, who struggled all weekend trying to understand the bike at this demanding Circuit of the Americas. We just have to take away the good points and get ready for the first European race in two weeks’ time in Portimao. In summary, it has been a challenging back to back rounds in Termas de Rio Hondo and here in Texas, but we have got valuable data that we can look into in order to improve ourselves for the remainder of the races. We look forward to Portugal, will just get back to work and do the best we can.”

Wilco Zeelenberg

Team Manger, WithU Yamaha RNF MotoGP Racing Team

“It has been a very demanding race weekend on a very demanding race track. Obviously both riders are quite disappointed. Andrea got one point, but he was definitely not happy finishing the race 29 seconds behind the leader. Anyway, he tried his best and he fought until the end, at least he got one point for that. Darryn had a tough weekend likewise with some fall offs in practice, but in the race, I think he did, what he needed to do. He followed the group and stayed with them until the final laps when he felt that his engine was holding back, so there was an electronic issue and he had to come in. Actually, he continued, but it was good he came in for safety reasons. It wasn’t nice to see that another time, we faced a problem in the race. Even if he was in the back, it was not nice, because the situation could have been different as well, so we have to dig into it. I can’t wait to return to Europe now.”