Guy Coulon has been an undeniable face of MotoGP, especially in the Tech3 world, over the last few years. With many years of experience at the highest level, the Frenchman has lived through it all and discussed what happened to Jorge Martín in Qatar.
In an interview with Paddock-GP, Coulon spoke about what happened to the Pramac Racing driver: ‘Well, I can answer that with the experience I have from previous years, which I no longer have today. What often happened, and with more or less all the drivers, was that during the qualifying session in particular, when you generally use two soft tyres: two laps, go in and another two laps with a second tyre. What I’ve been able to observe, check and recheck many times, in different sessions and with different drivers, is that after the first qualifying tyre, when the rider comes in and is in his normal performance zone, and is quite happy with his position, he goes out with the second tyre happy, I would say, or more or less‘.
He continued: ‘You’re going to ride correctly, smoothly, and in general you’ll improve your time a little. If you come in and you’re not in your place, you’re a bit low, etc., in your position, you start again with the second tyre, you struggle, you get a bit nervous, a bit less flexible, you attack more, etc., and systematically you come back saying that the second tyre didn’t work, that you didn’t have grip, because you’ll have been more aggressive with your bike‘.
And he explained that, in order to ‘compensate’ for what he’s done, he ends up being more aggressive: ‘The same thing happens when a rider doesn’t get off to a good start: well, to compensate, he’s a bit more aggressive, less concentrated in his riding, and he starts to think that the tyre isn’t working, because he’s being aggressive, he loses a bit of grip, and he starts to drag himself through the race and say to himself: «I’m not going to make it because of this tyre», and to be even more aggressive and to panic a bit and have problems. At the end, he’ll say: «Well, the tyre didn’t work»‘.