Dovizioso and Binder to line up in rows Six and Eight for Argentina return

02-04-2022

Dovizioso and Binder to line up in rows Six and Eight for Argentina return

The WithU Yamaha RNF MotoGP Team duo re-learns the Termas de Rio Hondo Circuit aboard their Yamaha YZR-M1 machines.

The comeback to Argentina following two years of absence was a tricky one for riders and teams, as logistical issues stopped the MotoGP World Championship from kicking off on Friday as usual. Therefore, Saturday has been fully packed and the WithU Yamaha RNF MotoGP Team riders did two 60-minutes Free Practice session and headed straight to Qualifying from there.

The shortened track time was crucial for WithU Yamaha RNF MotoGP Team’s Andrea Dovizioso, who has never ridden his Yamaha YZR-M1 at the Argentinean circuit before. He used FP1 and FP2 to study the layout again and improved from session one to session two by nearly one second. In Qualifying one, he went again 0.811 seconds faster, but missed out on the last tickets to Q2 by 0.415 seconds. The Italian will start the third round of the 2022 MotoGP World Championship from row six on the grid.

Meanwhile, the learning curve of premier class rookie Darryn Binder was even steeper; the South African started cautiously and improved by just 0.215 seconds from FP1 to FP2 due to a small crash towards the end of the second session. Yet, he managed to find a better feeling in Qualifying and increased his pace by 0.698 seconds in the afternoon, which will see him lining up in row eight for his third MotoGP race.

Tomorrow’s Warm Up will start earlier than originally scheduled at 10:20 local time (15:20 CET) and is extended to 40 minutes in order to give the riders more time to re-adapt to the Termas the Rio Hondo Circuit. The Gran Premio Michelin de la República Argentina, the third race of 2022 will get underway according to plan at 15:00 local time (20:00 CET).

Andrea Dovizioso

WithU Yamaha RNF MotoGP Racing Team

“It has not been an easy day overall. I’m struggling with the rear grip like before and here it is very low. For me it’s even worse and I feel like I can’t really play with the bike like I want to. It’s difficult. In the end, the Qualifying time was pretty ok though compared to other riders, but to be honest, I don’t feel very competitive. I’m not able to make a step exit by exit, like I wish to, because I’m not riding well enough. In the end, the lap time was acceptable, but not enough to be in a decent position. P18 seems to be more or less my position in the practice, which is unfortunately the reality at the moment. But we will work hard to get the best out of the race tomorrow.”

Darryn Binder

WithU Yamaha RNF MotoGP Racing Team

“It’s been a strange day and obviously, it’s very difficult to do time attacks straight away when you’ve been barely going on a MotoGP bike around this track. So, it was an interesting day and I was very happy with how it went in the end. In FP2, I made a mistake and crashed in the final minutes, which was unfortunate, but luckily, I was able to get back and we had enough time to be ready for Qualifying. I was really happy with my step in Q1, I managed to go quite a bit quicker, but so did everyone else. Anyway, if I look at the gap from the front, I feel I’m not too far from the other guys. Obviously, today was tricky for everybody, but overall, I’m quite pleased with how things went. We’ve just got to make the best of what we got. I’m really looking forward to the race tomorrow and also the Warm Up, where we have time enough to get some things dialled in that we found today.”