Marc Marquez was highly tipped to win the Misano GP – despite his two crashes – while Jorge Lorenzo struggled with braking issues during the weekend which was making him angry.
However, a magical set-up change and a suspension adjustment during warm-up practice allowed him to immediately brake better, and this change gave him more confidence and permitted him to escape from the rest of the field immediately after the lights went out, even if he said the race was “very demanding, physically and mentally.
”Lorenzo is now tied in second place with Dani Pedrosa and is still 34 points from Marc Marquez who continues to lead in the standings with just five races remaining in the championship.
We improve the bike so much in the warm-up as all weekend we have struggled to be competitive in braking, we could not stop the bike and I was angry.
We changed many things, but nothing was good.
Luckily, we improve in warm-up, I was much faster, much more confident so this give me the motivation to take the same strategy in the last few races,” said Lorenzo.
“I tried to push to the limit from the first corners and finally I got my goal to go alone.
The seamless gearbox give us an advantage but we couldn’t put the rest of things on the bike in the right direction, so I was upset but we didn’t give up.
“I am paying for my mistakes in Assen and Sachsenring.
The past is the past, we have to look to the future, improve the bike and win races to win the championship.
” Marco Simoncelli wasn’t smiling down on Valentino Rossi this year at Misano (it went worse for step brother Luca who crashed out of the Moto3 race on the first lap).
The Italian once again finished fourth unable to keep up with battling Marc Marquez and Dani Pedrosa as he began to fade, suffering once again with braking issues.
All the weekend our performance was quite good, I stayed with the top three and I raised my level, especially in qualifying, I could push stronger with the new tyres and make the first row.
The expectation for the race was very high, after the start the top guys were very fast but my fastest lap was close to theirs, said Rossi.
“Unfortunately after some laps I was in trouble in braking and entering corners.
I was struggling in hard braking and made some mistakes going wide and step-by-step they pulled away.
I made a small mistake on turn seven and lost two seconds and by then already I had too much disadvantage.
” “It’s a pity because we wanted to try for the podium here in Italy in front of all the fans in Misano.
We hope the weather remains good for tomorrow as we have to try some new parts.
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