Morbidelli: "It's like a click"

Sepang.- Apparently, the Italian began to notice this Saturday the fruits of the work he has been doing since the middle of the course, focused on improving his performance in qualifying. For the fourth time so far on the calendar, Franco Morbidelli was one of the 12 chosen to play the first four rows of the grid. Finally he placed seventh, his best starting position of this 2022, a circumstance that breathed a breath of fresh air into him that could not stupefy even the two ‘long laps’ that were imposed on him for rudely hindering Pecco Bagnaia and Marc Márquez, during the third free trial.

The step forward of the Roman that was visualized in the qualifying was confirmed later, in the race, by being able to cross the finish line in tenth place, even though a few minutes later the stewards relocated him to eleventh, for starring in a clash with Aleix Espargaró in the last lap.

Even with the two ‘long laps’, this eleventh place is Morbidelli’s second best result so far this season, a most hopeful indication, although not definitive if we look at his own opinion.

“Everything happened in this race. I’m happy with the pace shown all weekend. It’s as if I’d made a ‘click’, but there’s a lot of work behind it, a lot of time. In the damn qualifying,” summed up the Yamaha rider, who crossed the finish line 20 seconds behind Bagnaia, the winner, and 17 seconds behind Fabio Quartararo, his neighbor in the official tuning fork brand workshop, who was third.

For the pupil of the VR46 Pilot Academy , the key was the aggressiveness that he was able to apply to the M1, the one that Quartararo exploits so well. “This weekend I was able to be aggressive to maintain the speed when going through the corner. I hope to replicate it in Valencia, but I can’t be sure of it. I hope to be the Franky of always again”, deepened the #21, who this Sunday He was already seen with a much more optimistic gesture. So much so that he even dared to predict how he would have fared if he hadn’t had to serve the penalty: “Without the double penalty I think I would have been able to finish in the top five.”

Franco Morbidelli, Yamaha Factory Racing