IIIMY OWN RACE:
21 FRANCO MORBIDELLI
2ND MOTOGP
"I'm so happy, overwhelmed actually
to have finished on the podium today!"
said Franco Morbidelli. "It was a bit of a
strange race because I couldn't push at
100 percent all race. At the beginning, I
was going quite fast, my pace was be er
than I expected, and I was pulling away
from the pack. I could see Brad catching
though and knew he might be in a be er
posi on than me as he'd got the medium
re. I didn't try to fight because I just
wanted to make sure I got the bike to the
end of the race and got my first podium."
12 MAVERICK VINALES
14TH MOTOGP
"I think this is my worst result with
Yamaha," Maverick Vinales said. "I don't
know what happened, honestly. This
morning I felt great and I was hi ng
good lap mes, also on used res. But
in the race, I couldn't keep the pace, not
even for one lap. I just lost a lot of grip
since the beginning, and li le by li le it
got worse and worse. It was very difficult
to ride the bike. The only thing that I
could do was try to finish and try to take
some points. If I had risked more, I might
have scored zero, and that would have
been a mistake. So we took two very
valuable points today and, on the bright
side, the leader of the championship also
didn't do great today, so this lessens the
damage. We have to check the data and
try to be fast again in Austria."
sure throughout the race by EG 0,0 Marc VDS' Sam
Lowes, but the Briton eventually had to settle for
second, his first trip to a Grand Prix podium since
Aragon 2016. Tennor American Racing's Joe Roberts
joined them on the podium, which was a career-first
top-three finish for the Californian after setting pole
position in qualifying.
Moto3 saw another first-time winner in Dennis Fog-
gia (Leopard Racing) who produced a superb ride at
the Czech Republic Grand Prix to claim his maiden
Moto3 victory. The Italian led over half the race to
eventually fend off Championship leader Albert Are-
nas (Gaviota Aspar Team) by two tenths, with second
in the championship Ai Ogura (Honda Team Asia)
finishing an important third.
VOLUME 57 ISSUE 32 AUGUST 11, 2020 P59
(Left) Looking a little Hendrix-ish, Franco
Morbidelli was ecstatic to take his first MotoGP
podium. He led for the first two-thirds of the race
but couldn't contain the charging Binder.
