Franco Morbidelli finished the Portuguese GP in 18th place, repeating his performance from the Qatar GP. After missing the preseason due to injury, the Prima Pramac rider is still far from the level that the bike and the team allow him to aim for.
This is a phase of learning and adaptation for the Italian, who started at a clear disadvantage compared to the competition: he suffered a complicated injury at the end of January and could not test in a year of significant change after five years competing with a Yamaha YZR-M1.
After the Portimão round, Morbidelli said that, regardless of the result, he was satisfied: ‘We keep our learning curve with this bike and I can go home pretty satisfied – for sure results-wise not yet, because in the race I made a mistake at the start. I made a bad start, then I was caught up in a group, I went wide and I crashed. After that, the race result-wise was pretty much gone’.
Nevertheless, the rider ensured that there were encouraging signs, at a time when he is still learning: ‘Actually the rhythm was very acceptable and very decent, so that’s encouraging, because still I need to learn everything and I need to get in tune with everything. But already some things we are realizing that are coming. That’s positive, it just needs to keep going and I need to speed it up’.
In Portimão, in addition to finishing 18th in the main race, Morbidelli finished 16th in the Sprint race, having qualified in 17th position. He is currently 21st in the world championship after two rounds.