Three different versions of a crash…..
MotoGP Quotes
Marc Marquez – P1
“This win in front of these amazing fans is great! I’m very happy with the result, which is especially important at this track, because winning here is usually difficult for me. That said, I was convinced before the start that I could fight for the victory today. It was a tough weekend, but we did good work, and in the end I was able to manage the race in the best way, despite the fact that I wasn’t the fastest rider out there today. The key was the rear-tyre choice; we made the decision after the warm-up to go with the medium, and that was the right move. Then I was able to take the lead at the right moment and push when I had the chance. I also had a big moment when I hit some dirt on the track. When I realized that the asphalt was covered in gravel, it was already too late. I closed the gas, but I had a huge slide! Let’s say it was a bit of a ‘Marquez style’ show! I’m happy to have taken my first win at Angel Nieto’s Circuit, and to have an advantage in the Championship. We’ll have a test here tomorrow, and we’ll try to continue the good work. It will be a long season and we must keep our focus high.”
Johann Zarco – P2
“Sometimes I need some luck and today was good. Starting from third position was a great opportunity. I could be a bit faster than Pedrosa in the beginning, but he was a bit better in acceleration and then I never had enough margin to overtake him on the brake. I was not able to do it. It was difficult, but then I was in fifth position and hoped to catch this front group again, even if Marquez was going away, there was still the fight for the podium. I was always trusting, that it’s possible to catch them and I was doing my race. When I saw them crashing all three together, I couldn’t believe it. I told myself, keep calm, we have a big advantage, it’s just seven laps to go and it’s important to bring it home, being focus and enjoy. 20 points in the Championship are just awesome.”
Andrea Iannone – P3
“I’m really happy about this podium, it’s the second podium in a row for me and the third podium in a row for Suzuki, and for sure it’s a positive moment for us and the feeling with the bike is good so I’m very happy. We worked really well and things are going in a good way, so it’s important that we continue like this for the future. The only regret I have is for the tyre choice: we went to the grid with the medium, then once there we decided to go for the hard and finally this might not have been the best choice. We’ve been very fast the whole weekend with the medium, so maybe we could have been even more competitive with that, but in any case this is yet another lesson that we can learn from. For sure we were a bit ‘lucky’ today with the podium, but also we did very well and I used my head because it was very easy to make a mistake today as the track was very hot and slippery.”
Danilo Petrucci – P4
“It was a good race but it’s clear I have a bit of bitterness in my mouth. I thought I could attack Iannone a few laps earlier but I had to defend myself from Valentino. However, I am very happy with this result and I would like to thank the whole team for the extraordinary work they have done this weekend”.
Valentino Rossi – P5
“Fifth place, with my pace this weekend, is not so bad. I was also lucky because three guys in front of me crashed. We gave the maximum and today the race was quite good, but unfortunately this is our potential now. I was a lot faster compared to last year, but it’s not enough to fight for the podium. If we want to try to fight for the podium and the victory, we have to speed up our development process. I hope we can do so soon.”
Jack Miller – P6
“I’m happy with this result. It was a good race. It is clear that there have been some crashes but I have long been close to the group of the podium. I fought with Valentino who has a “little more” experience than me then I couldn’t keep the fifth position. Ok, that’s good, it’s a great weekend for the team and this gives me great confidence”.
Maverick Viñales – P7
“We were a little lucky because some riders made a mistake and we could jump up the leaderboard. I was unable to go fast from the first lap and I was struggling a lot to stay with Morbidelli and Bautista. At the end I had a little bit more grip and I pushed, so I was a little bit stronger than Alvaro, but we can’t be happy with seventh place. At the moment I’m mostly focused on the setting of the bike – we’re not so far off a solution. The bike is working well, but we still need to work. We tried to solve it by changing the set-up, but I don’t think that what we tried is the way forward. We have to continue to give our all to get the best results we can at the next race.”
Álvaro Bautista – P8
“I am very happy, more because of the feeling I’ve had on the bike since FP4 than with the eighth place. I think we have found the way forward and we are going to go in the right direction from now on. Whenever we tried to improve our main problem, the lack of contact with the asphalt from the rear made it difficult. Yesterday we decided to make a complete change to try to solve the front end issue, and I felt more comfortable with the bike, able to be better positioned coming out of the corners and more confident. I felt that I was riding the bike, rather than it riding me. On the final laps I fought with Maverick for seventh position, but at one point I missed a gear and wasn’t able to defend.”
Franco Morbidelli – P9
“It was a positive race for me, I was able to make a strong start and with good grip I was fast and able to make some positions. I tried to manage the tyre for the second half of the race but towards the end I had to slow down and make sure I got this top ten finish. It is great for our team and also for my feeling for the coming races.”
Mika Kallio – P10
“It is always nice to be the best KTM. Even to finish in the top ten is a brilliant result, although we know a few guys crashed today. The best thing for me is to see the gap to the front; I’m really satisfied with that. Now we are starting to get closer to the level where we finished last season. Slowly we are coming back and that’s positive. Of course we have been testing this bike before, here and in Mugello, and we had an idea how it would work over long distance. The other guys started to suffer more with grip and were spinning out of the corners more than me. This was a really good point of the new bike.”
Pol Espargaro – P11
“We had a clear direction with the tyres yesterday then today everything in the race changed; it is like a gamble. I didn’t feel good from the first lap and thought ‘wow, it is going to be a long race’. I was trying, and in the end Mika overtook me: it is a good sign that the things coming are working well. I want to start to develop the new toys for the future and it will be fun for us. I would love to use it but KTM is over-working and what we are doing nobody has done before. It is pretty crazy that Mika is using the updated bike in Jerez. I don’t like that he is in front of me today…but we need to take it as positive.”
Takaaki Nakagami – P12
“It was a really hard race in hot conditions. There were lots of crashes and the track temperature was quite high. It meant it was difficult to feel the tyre grip, especially later in the race with both the front and the rear. We still need to improve our starts to the race, and I have to understand why I am slower in the early laps. The LCR Honda Team have really helped me all weekend as usual, and although we know we need to improve, at least we still took our best result. We’re not as happy with that as we could be, but next time we will focus on the beginning of the race, where I believe we can then get a top-ten finish in Le Mans.”
Bradley Smith – P13
“The opening half of the race was pretty good and then (Alvaro) Bautista and Maverick (Viñales) started to up their pace a little bit. I tried to go with them but got a bit nervous and stressed on the bike. I spent half the race digging-in-deep. Pol and I then duked until the last corner: I was off the track! To the white line and everything. I was going for the pass; whether it stuck or not was another matter. It was a bit of a shame to lose a place but I was pleased with my pace. It is nice to see our ’updated bike looking strong and Mika threw some good sectors at the end. It is looking like the right direction. Let’s see how this test goes and the team have some good ideas for progress.”
Tito Rabat – P14
“It was a really difficult weekend. I thought I would be able to go faster in the race, but it was not possible. The start was not good and then I never got a good feeling with the bike. It was strange, so I decided to settle down and keep my pace until the end. It was impossible to go faster, and it’s a shame that this happened in my first home race. Tomorrow we will have a test where we will analyse what happened this weekend. I’m looking forward to this test, but I’m even keener to forget this weekend and to get to Le Mans.”
Scott Redding – P15
“We decided to take a risk choosing the hard rear that did not work in the right temperature range. In the race I had problems with grip again. With nothing to lose we took a gamble but things didn’t work. Fortunately, we will be testing in Mugello in a few days where we will try to work on rear grip which is the problem that is slowing me down at the moment.”
Hafizh Syahrin – P16
“I’ve done the fourth race in Jerez, but I was struggling with my body, because I suffered from Friday and today I felt honestly worse than yesterday. Therefore, I was really fighting in the middle of the race, I didn’t have any energy left to ride the bike properly because of my pain. Maybe I used too much of my energy in the beginning. Anyway, I’m happy with the team, because they did a really great job! I’m sorry for them, but our target was to try to finish the race and to learn as much as possible, which is exactly what we’ve done. Plus, we were very close to the points. I’ll recover now and try to do a good race for our team’s home Grand Prix in Le Mans.”
Xavier Simeon – P17
“The race today was very difficult, because we went worse and worse every lap. I didn’t have the pace we expected. We changed many things to solve the rear grip issue from yesterday, but at the end we just made things more difficult. I wasn’t able to push and ride the bike with confidence and I didn’t enjoy the race today. The only positive thing is that I kept a constant pace and got some more experience.”
Karel Abraham – P18
“I’m angry because from the beginning of the race I had a bad feeling with the front end. It felt very unstable. I tried to push because I had Kallio ahead and he finished tenth; I knew I could be up there with him or even overtake him, but I was hindered at all times by the front end. It was a difficult situation, and I crashed on the first corner. I got back on the bike to finish the race, because you never know what can happen.”
Dani Pedrosa – DNF
“I have a lot of pain in my right hip, which is very swollen at the moment, so tomorrow we’ll have to see how I feel and whether I’ll be able to ride in the test. Regarding the race, of course it’s a great pity. I was riding well and was able to keep a very good pace, even if I wasn’t totally comfortable with the acceleration, and making passes was difficult for me. I was just sticking to Dovi and Jorge, trying to see if I could conserve my tyres and improve my pace at the end of the race, or if they would make a mistake. Finally they did, and they both went very wide. I kept the regular inside line, and the next thing I felt was a big hit, and I suffered a heavy high-side. Unfortunately, it ended up with the three of us crashing. I’m very sad and disappointed for all of us, as we were having a great race but ended with zero points, and also because all of us are used to a nice style of riding and didn’t deserve this result. However, what makes me sadder and more disappointed is that I could see that the Race Direction don’t seem to understand very well how to manage these situations, and how to make decisions about things that happen on the track. I went to speak with them, just because I wanted to understand how they make decisions. In the end, there are many people who watch us, and many other riders who look at us as examples. I asked them how they judge: Was I on the correct inside line? Yes. Were the other guys on the outside coming back from a mistake, re-joining the right line? Yes. So who has the preference in this case, the guy who is inside or those who are outside? The one on the inside. So, who was at fault? But I didn’t get an answer, only that they had already made their decision and that if I didn’t agree with it, which I don’t, to appeal against Jorge if I wanted. But I didn’t want that, as I don’t want Jorge to be penalised, only for them to understand correctly what is happening on track.”
Andrea Dovizioso – DNF
“What a pity! On the one hand I’m happy with the feeling that I had with the bike, my speed and how I managed the race: to start from behind and make up places here at Jerez, lapping almost at the same pace as Marquez who then won the race, is truly a great satisfaction. But in the end I go home with no points, and this is a very negative result at this moment, because we are fighting against a very strong rider and bike and as a result we can’t afford to lose 20 points when it was a foregone conclusion. About the incident, I braked right on the limit because I had been trying to pass Jorge for a few laps: I went wide and made Jorge go wide a bit as well, Dani saw an opening and jumped in too quickly and in the end bad luck would have it that when they came together they also took me down with them.”
“I’m really disappointed about the crash, especially because it involved three of the fairest riders in the world championship, and for this reason I don’t want to go into detail about what happened. We were for sure very unlucky and it was a racing incident: Pedrosa went in very hard but I don’t think we can blame anyone except for bad luck and I’m really sorry for Andrea and for Ducati. Satisfaction remains for the great race we were doing, for my explosive start and for our determination, but I’m also happy with the way we worked the entire weekend. This race was a step ahead in our development and, even though we are still two or three tenths of a second off the pace, we are on the right path.”
Cal Crutchlow – DNF
“It was frustrating today because we’ve had another good weekend in terms of our pace, but unfortunately our set-up for the race was just not good enough. The front tyre was overheating and I was struggling for more rear grip compare to the others. The pace was yo-yoing a lot and I had to make it all up under braking and that meant the front tyre was getting hot. I had to try and stay out of the slipstream a lot. It seems I leant the bike a little too much in turn one, and we think I might have touched the white line but we haven’t had chance to analyse it just yet. It was exactly the same situation as in Texas. It was when I was on the throttle, and if you do that on the white line on full lean… Obviously I’m disappointed, I feel it’s an easy podium let go. Maybe the race win would have been more difficult, but we have to take the positives from the weekend and go to Le Mans knowing we have the speed to be up there again. Today just wasn’t our day.”
Alex Rins – DNF
“I don’t really know what happened, I only know that I was feeling really good with myself and the bike. But from the beginning I was struggling a bit with the front, and I didn’t have the same feeling as I had in FP4, but I still had a good rhythm. It’s hard to understand what happened because when I look at the data I was on the same line, I braked with the same intensity, had the same corner speed, but still I lost the front. So we need to try to understand more for the next races. We’ll have two days testing in Mugello and then we’ll head to France, I really like Le Mans and I know I will have a good rhythm and be able to battle.”
Tom Lüthi – DNF
“I was struggling with the front at the beginning of the race with a full fuel load but then I was able to pick up the pace and got involved in a good battle with Tito Rabat. But as the race went on it was difficult to hold the pace and I lost the front in turn 11 which unfortunately ended my race.”
Aleix Espargaro’ – DNF
“I want to take the Aprilia onto the podium. I am riding like I never have before in my entire career and I feel like we can succeed. Today we missed a great chance, given the pace demonstrated in the warm up and my feeling. Unfortunately, a DNF for technical reasons does not help my morale. This weekend we worked well and I am certain that we could have had a say in the race. Now, with the position in the overall standings compromised, I will always be giving 101% in every race from here to Valencia.”
Team Managers
Herve Poncharal – Tech3 Yamaha Team Manager
“That was an unbelievable race and this is what is MotoGP is all about. Until the chequered flag is down, you never know what’s going to happen. Johann did a great race, was holding on fifth and there was nothing he could do more. We saw, that the guys in front were above the rest of the field. We were chasing and increasing the gap to the ones following. Fifth was quite good, but it happened what happened. For me it was a racing incident, bad luck for Dovizioso, Lorenzo and Pedrosa, but it’s part of the game. Thanks to that and with Johann’s consistency, never giving up, we managed to get the second spot for the second time this year, plus second in the provisional ranking, which makes us very, very happy and also shows, it doesn’t matter which bike you have, which material, the rpm, the engine – it’s a question of man, machine and the team. I’m very proud that Monster Yamaha Tech3 is able to show that and to give the hope to everyone on the grid, that you can do it. Great job from our crew, great job from Johann as usual, thanks Yamaha and also Michelin for the good technical package. Hafizh was another story, he had a very tough weekend. Honestly, I told him on Friday night, that I don’t think it is wise to race and it’s better to recover and be ready for the next round in France, but he told me he wants to race and to continue. He missed the points by one position, which is also showing his huge determination. I want to thank him for this. He was in extreme pain, but still he had a decent race, so all I hope is, that he is not cycle downhill anymore and we have him back at full fitness for the French Grand Prix in Le Mans, where there will be many guys coming to support Johann and the whole Tech3 Team.”
Massimo Meregalli – Yamaha MotoGP Team Director
“The Spanish GP is always a spectacle, but nobody could have predicted the dramatic incidents that happened today. We knew we had a difficult race ahead of us. The track conditions in today’s heat were not easy and this is highlighted by the many crashes we saw this afternoon. Vale and Maverick both struggled in middle of the race, but their pace seemed to get stronger towards the end. Vale pushed as much as he could and was very close to landing a place on the podium. Maverick also ended the day scoring some valuable points, so he remains in third place in the championship. Tomorrow we have another day of testing at this circuit, which we will use to find some solutions. The Jerez test is always important, because we can use it to do back-to-back setting comparisons. We have to keep working to increase our bike’s performance, so we get back to the level where we belong.”
Mike Leitner – KTM Team Manager MotoGP
“Before we started the MotoGP race it was great to see an all-KTM podium in Moto3 and Miguel (Oliveira) did a great race in difficult conditions in Moto2. MotoGP was a bit crazy and we said to the riders before ‘please keep focused because it will be a long race and demanding on the tyres’. We saw some crashes and mistakes and the guys did great to keep concentration and make their best pace. It was good to see three bikes in the points and that Mika was ahead as he’s using a slightly different set-up on the bike, which is very positive for the future. The team did a great job to bring all the bikes home with points. Now we must look to the test, and to work on some items where we normally don’t have any time in the (Grand Prix) sessions. There will be some long days but also necessary to make the next step. It is especially good to get so close to the leader on a difficult track like Jerez; we still need to work to make that gap smaller.”
Ken Kawauchi – Suzuki Technical Manager
“This weekend both of our riders had very good pace, so we expected a little bit more in the race but unfortunately we couldn’t do it and we need to investigate more. It was a strange race with many crashes, including Alex, which was a great pity because he had good speed. But we still got a podium with Andrea and I’m really happy that we could do it, and continue our success as we have now had three podiums. I hope we can continue to get better.”
Davide Brivio – Suzuki Team Manager
“It has, of course, been very nice to score the third podium in a row, even though we’re aware that we needed some ‘luck’ and unusual circumstances to get this podium. Anyway, that’s racing and it’s like this sometimes. I liked Andrea’s fighting spirit today and when he saw the chance of the podium he fought very hard for it, and he really deserved this result. So we take the points and we continue our route in this championship. We’ll go step-by-step and see what happens, we have many more races to do, and this is good also for Alex because unfortunately there was something strange on the front end of his bike during the race and we have to understand what happened. But I’m happy anyway, because once again he was competitive and he was there with the pace of the top guys. Since the beginning of the season he has been competitive and I’m sure we’ll have many other opportunities to get good results with him.”
Romano Albesiano – Aprilia Racing Manager
“This week we’ll be on the track at Mugello to improve the setup for Scott who is still not entirely sorted from this point of view, unlike Aleix who has good performance which once again proved to be in vain. We are having a series of problems that prevent us from reaping the fruits of our labours. This season has begun uphill, but it is time to hang tough because we know that, in terms of pure performance, we are not far from the leaders and we can come back and do very well.”
Fausto Gresini – Aprilia Team Manager
“I am absolutely convinced that we have a quality project and that the bike is worth much more than what we have been able to achieve. We need to dial in a lot of small things that are the ones that make the difference. It is not easy to do that in the race and when you have days like this one, but this is precisely the moment to demonstrate the value of the team. We need to grit our teeth for those who believe in this project, for the riders, the team and all those who are working back home.”
Michael Bartholemy – MarcVDS Team Principal
“This was a really good race by Franco so I am happy for this top ten result which is always the goal for a private team. This makes up a little for our poor result in Texas. I feel for Tom, it is a shame he crashed because he was fighting with Tito who finished in the points and I am sure Tom is capable of being in the points in the future.”
MotoGP Race Results
- Marc MARQUEZ SPA Honda 159.2
- Johann ZARCO FRA Yamaha 158.9 +5.241
- Andrea IANNONE ITA Suzuki 158.7 +8.214
- Danilo PETRUCCI ITA Ducati 158.7 +8.617
- Valentino ROSSI ITA Yamaha 158.6 +8.743
- Jack MILLER AUS Ducati 158.6 +9.768
- Maverick VIÑALES SPA Yamaha 158.3 +13.543
- Alvaro BAUTISTA SPA Ducati 158.3 +14.076
- Franco MORBIDELLI ITA Honda 158.1 +16.822
- Mika KALLIO FIN KTM 158.0 +19.405
- Pol ESPARGARO SPA KTM 157.9 +21.149
- Takaaki NAKAGAMI JPN Honda 157.9 +21.174
- Bradley SMITH GBR KTM 157.8 +21.765
- Tito RABAT SPA Ducati 157.8 +22.103
- Scott REDDING GBR Aprilia 156.9 +36.755
- Hafizh SYAHRIN MAL Yamaha 156.6 +41.861
- Xavier SIMEON BEL Ducati 156.1 +49.241
- Karel ABRAHAM CZE Ducati 150.3 1 Lap
Not Classified
Jorge LORENZO SPA Ducati 159.3 8 Laps
Andrea DOVIZIOSO ITA Ducati 159.3 8 Laps
Dani PEDROSA SPA Honda 159.3 8 Laps
Cal CRUTCHLOW GBR Honda 155.4 9 Laps
Thomas LUTHI SWI Honda 157.0 14 Laps
Alex RINS SPA Team Suzuki 157.9 20 Laps
Not Finished 1st Lap
Aleix ESPARGARO SPA Aprilia 0 Lap
MotoGP Championship Points
- Marc MARQUEZ Honda SPA 70
- Johann ZARCO Yamaha FRA 58
- Maverick VIÑALES Yamaha SPA 50
- Andrea IANNONE Suzuki ITA 47
- Andrea DOVIZIOSO Ducati ITA 46
- Valentino ROSSI Yamaha ITA 40
- Cal CRUTCHLOW Honda GBR 38
- Jack MILLER Ducati AUS 36
- Danilo PETRUCCI Ducati ITA 34
- Tito RABAT Ducati SPA 24
- Dani PEDROSA Honda SPA 18
- Alex RINS Suzuki SPA 16
- Franco MORBIDELLI Honda ITA 13
- Pol ESPARGARO KTM SPA 13
- Alvaro BAUTISTA Ducati SPA 12
- Hafizh SYAHRIN Yamaha MAL 9
- Takaaki NAKAGAMI Honda JPN 9
- Aleix ESPARGARO Aprilia SPA 6
- Mika KALLIO KTM FIN 6
- Jorge LORENZO Ducati SPA 6
- Scott REDDING Aprilia GBR 5
- Bradley SMITH KTM GBR 3
- Karel ABRAHAM Ducati CZE 1