Aragon GP: Morbidelli finishes sixth; Quartararo 18th

Michelle Liew

October 19, 2020

The PETRONAS Yamaha SRT riders have just completed the Aragon GP.

Franco Morbidelli and Fabio Quartararo completed the Aragon GP | Photo credits:

PETRONAS Yamaha SRT rider Franco Morbidelli managed to complete a consistent 10^th race of 2020 at Motorland Argon by finishing sixth place. Teammate Fabio Quartararo, on the other hand, suffered a front tyre pressure issue which sent him the end of the Aragon GP 18^th.

Morbidelli had a 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 at 23 to 25 October.

Datuk 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 on 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.

It was a really great fourth position for Jake, his best Moto2 result so far as well. We know that he is just going to get better and better, especially next weekend with the race at MotorLand Aragón again. It was also a really commendable effort from Xavi, who has various broken bones in his feet. We’ll wait and see how he gets on next week, as he now has a couple of days to mend and recover.

It was a good recovery from John in the Moto3 race; finishing fifth means that he has recouped some points in the championship and is still in contention for the title. We still have some work to do with KIP, as he had some struggles in the race today, but we are looking forward to achieving a better result next week

Franco Morbidelli (PETRONAS Yamaha SRT) – As It Happened

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 (PETRONAS Yamaha SRT) – As It Happened

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 within 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.