Poor tire choice for Quartararo, Rossi and Viñales in Aragon
Starting off with a hard rear tire at the GP of Aragon, Maverick Viñales, Fabio Quartararo and Valentino Rossi finished 4th, 5th and 8th behind soft-tire motorcycles… Yamaha riders more or less admit their ball … of gum! MNC statements and analyzes.
If no one was able to dispute the victory of Marc Marquez, the fight for the podium was more thrilling. And among the contenders for the places of honor were the Yamaha, especially those of Fabio Quartararo and Maverick Viñales who had respectively qualified 2nd and 3rd.
- GP of Aragon:
- MNC special file :
Valentino Rossi, sixth on the grid, one full second from Marquez’s pole (!), Had necessarily lower ambitions: the podium was inaccessible to him in view of his pace on this track where he has never done better than a third place in ten participations.
The race, as planned by Marc Marquez, was initially favorable to M1: Viñales – particularly enterprising this Sunday – for once set off perfectly when the lights went out and knew how to seize all the opportunities.
The Spaniard quickly settled into second place with a good lead, while Fabio Quartararo lost contact to Miller and Dovizioso. The Ducatis then defeated the beginner from Nice thanks to their engine advantage (14 km / h better than his private M1!), Before swooping down on Viñales.
The n ° 12 found himself grappling with the GP19 in the last two laps, without being able to respond to the attacks of "DesmoDovi" then of "Jackass": Viñales finished at the foot of the podium in front of Quartaro, author of a second part of solo race.
Valentino Rossi for his part finished in 8th place 23.623 sec from the winner and 17.8 sec from his teammate on an equal bike … The transalpine did not manage to gain any position in the race, where he generally shows himself more consistent. Worse: he even gave up two places against the Honda of Crutchlow and … the Aprilia of Espargaro !
"The tender had a little more than the hard did not"
Of course, MotorLand in Aragon is not a circuit favorable to Yamaha, which suffers as much from its configuration as from the weak grip of the bitumen. Its long straight line of 968 m also underlines the inferiority of the 4-cylinder of the M1, dominated by the V4 Honda, Ducati and … Aprilia. !
Noale’s test rider, Bradley Smith, reached 338.6 km / h on Sunday, the same "V-max" as the fastest Yamaha: that of Viñales. Rossi and Quartararo took 336.5 and 332.3 km / h respectively. The Nice man rode the slowest motorcycle of the race !
However, this disadvantage in a straight line does not explain all the difficulties faced by the representatives of the Iwata crest, in particular the collapse of their pace in the second part of the race. Another factor comes into consideration: their choice to go with the hard rear tire.
The results are clear: all the riders ahead of the Yamaha at the GP of Aragon had opted for the tender solution, or the opposite choice! And yet Marquez, Dovizioso, Miller, Crutchlow and Espargaro did not encounter any concerns of wear. On the contrary, they were able to print an excellent rhythm from start to finish..
"At the end of the race, the Soft had a little more than the Hard had", admits Fabio Quartararo: "the Honda and the Ducatis had it soft and I think it was the best option".
Choosing hard was "maybe a mistake"
But why didn’t you choose it? "It was clearly my decision: I did not feel very good with the tender", answers the n ° 20 who admits however to having "perhaps made a mistake" and to have especially suffered from a lack of grip on the left side.
"But even on a circuit not easy for us, we finished in the top five so we are happy", relativizes the Yamaha rider Petronas, who adds a "Top 5" to his four podiums in Catalonia, the Netherlands, Austria and San Marino.
"Overall (…) I’m happy with the result because my goal was to finish in the top five. We are fighting for the title of best independent rider with Jack (Miller, Editor’s note) and it will be interesting to continue this battle in Asia Pacific ", finished Fabio, currently 7th in the provisional ahead of Miller.
- MNC of September 19, 2019 :
"Fabio had a consistent race, without the result we were dreaming of after qualifying, but finishing a tough race with poor grip is not something to complain about, it’s something to be proud of" , note of con side the team manager Wilco Zeelenberg.
Viñales will learn the lesson for next year !
Maverick Viñales, for his part, accuses the backlash of having seen the podium slip through his gloves in the last moments, even if he underlines the progress made on this difficult circuit. The Spaniard considers having "given everything" and therefore has no regrets.
"Last year, here, it was a disaster (he had finished 10th in 22 seconds, Editor’s note): this year we were close to being second", he is satisfied, before also recognizing that the hard tire undoubtedly weighed in his performance.
Like Fabio, "Mack" justifies his decision by his bad feeling with the soft solution during the tests: "it led us to the Hard, because I did not have great feelings". The No.12 planned to refine his judgment during the warm-up, but the rain decided otherwise…
"The plan was to try the tender Sunday morning and do ten laps to see," revealed the Spaniard. "Maybe if it had been, we would have competed with the software. But we know for next year and it’s important".
This last thought can make you smile: Viñales assures that he will draw the consequences next season, when this situation has already occurred on numerous occasions. And precisely in Aragon, where Marquez had already won the race last year with a soft tire at the rear !
"Michelin recommended the tough mix for Yamaha riders"
And what does Valentino Rossi think, who finishes his second successive race far from the other Yamaha? For the nine-time world champion, the case is over: the hard tire was the only possible solution for his bike and those of his teammates.
"I do not know what result we could have obtained with the soft, because during the tests it did not suit our bike", relates n ° 46 who even specifies that "Michelin recommended the hard mixture for Yamaha riders".
Still, the advice of the Bibendum is only indicative: Rossi, Viñales and Quartararo were free to go with the tender solution, which oddly suited radically different motorcycles and riders !
Note, however, that the only ones to have also set off with the hard tire are Alex Rins and Joan Mir on their Suzuki with inline 4-cylinder engine, like the Yamaha! The Suzuki boys finally finished in 9th and 14th places, Rins having lost time following his collision with Morbidelli and his penalty that followed..
"For me, it’s not a tire problem, it’s our problem," said Rossi, the last Yamaha rider to arrive. "We are still struggling with rear grip and because of this lack of grip we are damaging the tire".
"We suffer more than Quartararo and Viñales," admits the transalpine star, however, well aware of the presence at the forefront of other Yamaha riders. "We have to keep working and trying to figure out how to improve to be more competitive".
Morbidelli, hit by Rins, turns to Thai GP
In addition to this questionable choice of tire for the Yamaha, the abandonment in the first lap of the fourth M1 of Morbidelli, which was sent to the carpet the GSX-RR of Alex Rins.
"I had a very good pace and I was hoping to have a good race: it is very unfortunate what happened on the first lap," said Fabio’s teammate. "We improved the bike this morning and I knew we could get a good result, but at turn 12 I got hit by Rins and I couldn’t do anything".
"He came after the race and told me he was sorry for this mistake and that he had tried to stop but did not succeed," explains Franco Morbidelli. "The good thing is we’ve been fast all weekend. So we’re going to use our strengths when we go to Thailand.".
This revenge of Yamaha in Thailand will begin Friday, October 4, after a week of hiatus. This first overseas race will be followed by three consecutive Grands Prix: Japan on October 20, Australia on October 27 and Malaysia on November 3. Stay connected !
MotoGP results and ranking of the GP of Aragon 2019
- Marc MARQUEZ Honda 41’57.221
- Andrea DOVIZIOSO Ducati +4.836
- Jack MILLER Ducati +5.430
- Maverick VIÑALES Yamaha +5.811
- Fabio QUARTARARO Yamaha +8.924
- Cal CRUTCHLOW Honda +10.390
- Aleix ESPARGARO Aprilia +10.441
- Valentino ROSSI Yamaha +23.623
- Alex RINS Suzuki +27.998
- Takaaki NAKAGAMI Honda +31.242
- Andrea IANNONE Aprilia +32.624
- Danilo PETRUCCI Ducati +33.043
- Miguel OLIVEIRA KTM +33.063
- Joan MIR Suzuki +33.363
- Tito RABAT Ducati +36.358
- Francesco BAGNAIA Ducati +41.295
- Mika KALLIO KTM +42.983
- Karel ABRAHAM Ducati +43.880
- Bradley SMITH Aprilia +44.279
- Jorge LORENZO Honda +46.087
- Hafizh SYAHRIN KTM +47.308
Did not finish the first round
- Franco MORBIDELLI Yamaha
Provisional classification of the 2019 MotoGP championship
- Marc MARQUEZ Honda 300
- Andrea DOVIZIOSO Ducati 202
- Alex RINS Suzuki 156
- Danilo PETRUCCI Ducati 155
- Maverick VIÑALES Yamaha 147
- Valentino ROSSI Yamaha 137
- Fabio QUARTARARO Yamaha 123
- Jack MILLER Ducati 117
- Cal CRUTCHLOW Honda 98
- Franco MORBIDELLI Yamaha 80
- Pol ESPARGARO KTM 77
- Takaaki NAKAGAMI Honda 68
- Joan MIR Suzuki 49
- Aleix ESPARGARO Aprilia 46
- Andrea IANNONE Aprilia 32
- Francesco BAGNAIA Ducati 29
- Miguel OLIVEIRA KTM 29
- Johann ZARCO KTM 27
- Jorge LORENZO Honda 23
- Tito FLAP Ducati 18
- Stefan BRADL Honda 16
- Michele PIRRO Ducati 9
- Sylvain GUINTOLI Suzuki 7
- Hafizh SYAHRIN KTM 7
- Karel ABRAHAM Ducati 5
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