MOTOGP
FIM MOTOGP WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP
ROUND 1 / JULY 17-19, 2020
CIRCUITO DE JEREZ – ÁNGEL NIETO / JEREZ, SPAIN
P60
proach, however. Rossi's stay won't
be a long one, and a number of his
technicians may retire when he does.
For a figure that has eyes on a long
stay in MotoGP, this kind of swap
doesn't interest Petronas manage-
ment. "We have made an agreement
on the matter with him," confirmed
Team Principle Razlan Razali in a
post on Facebook. "Although there is
a problem between us and Valentino
Rossi, which is more or less techni-
cal and in terms of the technical staff
that he wants to bring, or he has an
agreement with what we have pre-
pared for him next year."
ROBERTS BACK DOWN
TO EARTH
Sunday was a sobering day for Qatar
hero Joe Roberts. Aside from setting
a top-10 time in FP1, the American
Racing rider struggled to replicate
his form from the first round of the
season as the high track tempera-
tures were a continual problem. "The
race didn't go as expected," said
Roberts of his 17th-place finish, 33
seconds back of race winner Luca
Marini. "I thought we could have a
good result and battle near the front.
We're still missing something with the
setup in these hotter conditions, so,
luckily, we have another race to keep
working on a setting that'll work. It
wasn't our best weekend. We can do
better," said the Californian.
DOWN AND NOT OUT?
Cal Crutchlow's morning warm-up fall
at turn eight fractured the scaphoid
in his left wrist. Despite breaking a
bone notoriously slow to heal, the
Briton is nonetheless intent on com-
peting next weekend. "Dr. Mir will
operate on the wrist in Barcelona on
Tuesday morning, and I will return to
the circuit on Friday and hopefully to
action," Crutchlow said.
Briefly...
Jorge Navarro's race was over almost before it began. The Spaniard, who qualified second to Jorge Martin, was
turfed off his Speed Up chassis in the Turn One melee by Marco Bezzecchi. Bezzecchi would also crash out of the
race, falling at half-race distance in the stadium section by losing the front of his Sky VR46 Kalex.
