Franco Morbidelli: “What bad luck”. Here’s what happened to him in Argentina

During a weekend that was already complicated by the cancellation of Friday’s sessions owing to air freight delays, Franco Morbidelli’s race in Argentina proved to be an uphill climb and ultimately came to a premature end after a stroke of bad luck. The Italo-Brazilian’s Yamaha M1 suffered a puncture, which brought the rider’s race to an immediate end.

A disappointing DNF for Morbidelli

“Morbido” is understandably disappointed and explains: “We don’t know what caused the puncture. It was real bad luck”. Fifteenth on the grid, he was nevertheless confident that he could catch up: “We’d made real improvement during our second exit in warm-up and I had good pace. I was starting to catch up in the race after an initial slump”. He may well have been able to add to his tally of 14 championship points but instead he scored his first 0 of the season.

One of the Yamaha’s problems

Having started fifteenth, he was lying eighteenth after lap one and comments: “At the start of the race and with new tyres, our rivals have a lot of power so they’re able to push and pass us. They don’t have stronger pace than us, but they’re able to get ahead early on”. A real disadvantage for both Morbido and Fabio Quartararo: “Then you have to gradually make up this lost ground, but you start from a long way back. It’s not ideal”. It’s not easy to always have to play catch-up. Attention now turns to Texas.

Translated by Heather Watson

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