Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/1113817
MOTOGP FIM MOTOGP WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP ROUND 4 / MAY 3-5, 2019 CIRCUITO DE JEREZ / JEREZ DE LA FRONTERA, SPAIN P86 By now Marquez, pushing hard, was less than two seconds clear. "Everyone can be fast on new tires," he said later. "Only when they start to drop can I feel com- fortable. I am not used to racing like this. I prefer to wait for the end. But this year it's not like that." Quartararo wasn't able to close the gap, but he was look- ing comfortable as Morbidelli gradually lost ground. By this point, Alex Rins (Ecstar Suzuki) had displaced Vinales as his closest pursuer. Rins had fin- ished lap one in sixth after pushing past Cal Crutchlow (LCR Honda) then outbraking Danilo Petrucci's factory Ducati at the final hairpin. It took him another five laps to do the same, even more daringly, to Dovizioso into the double rights of the stadium section. Quartararo started lap 14 2.1 seconds behind Marquez but better than a second ahead of his teammate. "I was feeling good, the bike was fine," he (Monster Yamaha) had to start from 13th after being bumped out of a chance in the top-12 Q2 by his own protégé Pecco Bagnaia (Pramac Ducati), who then com- pounded the felony by crashing out. Rossi's ride through to sixth was one of the highlights of the latter part of the race. Quartararo had claimed a surprise pole position at record speed, but it was second quali- fier Morbidelli leading the pursuit after Andrea Dovizioso (Mission Winnow Ducati) made a good start off row two only to be pushed wide into the first corner by the Italian Yamaha rider. Quartararo was third, then Monster Yamaha's Maverick Vinales ahead of Dovi. The field stayed close, nobody able to do much more than follow in the early stages. Then on lap 11, a little slip into the far hairpin gave Quartararo the chance to slip past Morbidelli into second. DANI PEDROSA CORNER Goodbye Dry Sack, hello Dani Pedrosa Corner. The hairpin at the end of the back straight at Jerez was rechristened on race eve in honor of the recently retired former 125 and 250 Champion, three- times MotoGP runner-up, and three times Jerez MotoGP winner. The career-long Honda rider, who was present at Jerez in his new KTM clothes, joins other Spanish stars on the list of Jerez corner names, with curves already named after Sito Pons, Jorge "Aspar" Martinez, Alex Criville, Jorge Lorenzo and Angel Nieto, after whom the whole circuit is also named. PARTY TIME FOR PETRONAS The double-front-row start was a signal moment for the brand new Petronas-sponsored satellite Yama- ha team, where teammates Quar- Briefly... iii My Own Race: 9 DANILO PETRUCCI 5TH MOTOGP "Overall, I'm happy with the way we managed a race that proved to be a bit trickier than what we expected," said Petrucci. "I lacked a bit of corner speed, and I couldn't be as efficient as I would have liked under braking. To finish in the top three, this year, it's neces- sary to iron out every single detail and, in my case, to start from a better position on the grid." 20 FABIO QUARTARARO DNF MOTOGP "You could say that I am both disappointed and happy," Quartararo said. "The race was very good; I felt very good on the bike, and it was fantastic to ride with the top riders. That was until we suffered a small mechanical problem with the gear shifter. It's some- thing very small, but it affected us a lot, forcing us to abandon the race. Despite this, I'm happy with the work that we've done during the weekend, and we will continue in the same way at the coming races."