Exciting Opening in Mandalika for WithU Yamaha RNF MotoGP Team

18-03-2022

Exciting Opening in Mandalika for WithU Yamaha RNF MotoGP Team

Andrea Dovizioso and Darryn Binder get scorching Grand Prix of Indonesia underway decently.

The inaugural Grand Prix at the Mandalika Circuit started with tricky weather conditions today. Following some heavy showers this morning, the partly resurfaced track still featured some wet parts and times were coming down slowly in the first session of the weekend, while FP2 took place under the burning Indonesian sun in full dry conditions.

Although there have been still some wet patches, Andrea Dovizioso started FP1 this morning straight away on slick tyres and eventually concluded the first session of the weekend in P12. In the afternoon, it was not just the asphalt that was heating up, but also the pace of all riders. Thereby, the Italian WithU Yamaha RNF MotoGP Team rider speeded up by 2.289 seconds compared to this morning and was missing out on the top 10 by just 0.197 seconds in eleventh position.

On the other side of the garage, Darryn Binder initiated the morning cautiously on wet tyres, but after a few laps changed to slicks as well. He struggled to find enough confidence on the wet parts of the circuit, but therefore went a lot quicker in dry and hot FP2. The MotoGP newcomer improved by more than four seconds to conclude day one in Indonesia in P23, only 0.711 seconds behind his teammate.

Both WithU Yamaha RNF MotoGP Team riders are aiming to make further steps throughout tomorrow’s important sessions, starting with FP3 at 10:50 local time (03:50 CET), followed by FP4 at 14:25 (07:25 CET) and the Qualifying at 15:05 (08:05 CET) and hoping for stable weather conditions.

Andrea Dovizioso

“I still have to work a lot on learning how to ride the bike the correct way and until I manage to do that correctly, I have to basically put in double the amount of work. I still need some improvement and especially, when the grip is like this. I did a different strategy and started with the soft tyre, but it didn’t work. I managed to do some laps behind Franky (Morbidelli), which was very important to see how the bike is ridden correctly. The condition of the track was a bit better than during the test, there is still a line and you have to be really careful, when you leave it. This is going to be difficult for the race.”

Darryn Binder

“This morning was quite difficult. The conditions have been a bit mixed at the beginning of the session. I did a couple of laps on the wets, stopped, put in the slicks, but I just struggled to gain enough confidence to cross the wet patches. With this big bike and so much power every time you touch the wet patches and it moves, I get a little bit nervous, so I struggled to get comfortable this morning. Anyway, it was a learning experience nonetheless. FP2 was quite good. We really tried to improve a lot. I felt quite good and felt that the tyres are different to the test. The grip on the tyre seems to be less than what we had at the test. So I was just really trying to understand that and trying to make changes to improve. I have a better understanding now after FP2 and I think we can work on some things for tomorrow. I still need to learn how to really push 100% on the first lap with a new tyre to get the absolute maximum. Overall, I’m quite happy with how things went. Hopefully we can improve tomorrow if the weather stays stable.”