Austin.- The Frenchman was making a very fast lap and was facing the last three corners of the track, improving the fastest time of the first round of Q2, which could have placed him on provisional pole, until he forced himself so much that he went down .
The Frenchman shot towards the road looking for someone to take him back to the box, where he arrived with five minutes to spare to immediately get on the second bike and go out on the track. Too many emotions and adrenaline to close a round lap.
The Yamaha will start sixth on the grid, from the end of the second row, the limit between having or not having options. The problem is that he has no less than five Ducati in front of him.
“I gave everything in Q2”, assured the Frenchman. “I knew that if I wanted to have a great race tomorrow, I had to bet on it and I pushed 100% but we suffered a crash”, he recalled.
“In the second start I also tried to do my best, things were better, but in the first sector I made a lot of mistakes,” he lamented.
“We could have improved in sector three and four, but when it’s hot it costs us a little more to have grip and you have to go to the limit to get the times.”
Despite the fact that he will start from the second row, having achieved it after a crash leaves the Yamaha rider satisfied.
“I am happy because I have given my best and I have nothing to say because a fall can happen.”
In addition to starting sixth, the problem will be overcoming the five Ducati that clearly outperform the Yamaha in power and top speed, which could lead to planning a race containing the damage.
“To be honest, I don’t think so, because they are already ahead, I prefer to have five Ducati [in front] than a Suzuki, a Honda, although the truth is that it doesn’t really matter because all the bikes go super fast,” he reflected.
“We are going to see how everything goes, but I think we have to give our all from the beginning if we want to have any chance. I am not going to say that I hope to limit damage, but there are a lot of people with great pace,” he warned.
“Luckily the Aprilias have stayed in Q1, because the pace they had was very strong”.
Despite the configuration of the grid and Marc Márquez’s poor qualifying, the Frenchman hasn’t forgotten about the Honda rider.
“For me basically the favorites are Marc [Marquez] and [Enea] Bastianini. They have really strong pace. Just before Q2 I was watching sector three of Bastianini on old tires in FP4 and basically, it was my attacking sector at time. So for sure we will suffer a lot on the back straight”, settled the Yamaha.
