Morbidelli Manages Sixth at Motorland Aragón

18-10-2020

Morbidelli Manages Sixth at Motorland Aragón

Franco Morbidelli ends Aragon GP sixth; Fabio Quartararo 18th.

Franco Morbidelli completed a consistent 10th race of 2020 today at MotorLand Aragón, finishing the 23-lap race in sixth position. PETRONAS Yamaha SRT team-mate Fabio Quartararo suffered a front tyre pressure issue, which saw him end the Aragon GP 18th.

Morbidelli had great drive off the line to take the holeshot, but ran wide in Turn 1 and ended up third. After a brief battle on lap eight with team-mate Quartararo, the Italian held fifth for the majority of the race. Despite attempting to bridge the gap in the closing laps, Franco unfortunately lost one place in the final corner and ended the Aragon GP sixth.

A difficult start saw Quartararo lose places off the line, but he managed to claw his way back to second in the opening laps. Struggling with a front tyre pressure issue, the Frenchman found himself falling backwards through the field. Gritting his teeth and trying his hardest to find what grip he could, Fabio crossed the line 18th, which puts him second in the championship standings.

The final event of the October triple-header, the Gran Premio de Teruel, is up next for Quartararo and Morbidelli, which will see them in action at MotorLand Aragón again next weekend (23-25 October).

Franco Morbidelli

"I did struggle to fight with people at the beginning of the race, we had the medium front tyre, and I lost too much ground in the early stages, battling with some riders. Towards the end I was catching Maverick [Viñales] but I didn’t get close enough to attack him, he was maintaining the distance. Unfortunately, I lost out to Takaaki [Nakagami] in the final corner as well. It was a good race though, especially the last twelve laps where I was able to maintain a really consistent pace. We are missing something, so we will try to sort that out for next weekend."

Fabio Quartararo

"It was a really strange race. We knew that our pace was not the best but we were not expecting to finish in this position. I was expecting to be further up the field, but we had an issue with the front tyre. It’s the first time we’ve used this tyre, it felt great to begin with in the opening three laps, but the pressure became too high. It was not possible to ride, I had no feeling in the front. I’m disappointed because without this problem I think we could have been able to fight for a better result. It isn’t easy to understand why but we’ll look and prepare for next weekend, when we are here again."

Razlan Razali

Team Principal

"That wasn’t among the better race days for the team so we need to analyse what happened in the MotoGP race, that way we can figure out the best way to approach next weekend’s GP. It is at the same circuit so this is going to be really important to do. Franco still managed to finish today’s race sixth, which was a good effort from him. It is a shame that Fabio finished outside of the points, but he did have a big crash yesterday and a tyre pressure issue today. These things happen in racing, we just need to learn from it and come back better next weekend."