28-30 / 05
Round up of the events for this week ’ s Round 7 of MotoGP TM
Miller doubles up
You know what they say : wait 1773 days – or 82 races – after your first MotoGP™ win for your second and then two come along ( nearly ) at once . Jack Miller experienced just that , taking his second win in as many weeks with a consummate display of cool , wet weather riding . The Australian was challenging in the dry and cooly picked off Fabio Quartararo in the wet despite serving a double Long Lap Penalty for speeding in pit lane when switching bikes (“ the old French speed traps get me all the time ”).
Miller ’ s wet weather skills have long been known . “ For me , I push quite hard in these conditions ,” he explained after the race . “ As you ’ ve seen in the past and also this weekend I crash quite often . I don ’ t mind when the bike is moving . I feel I ’ m able to take the grip and understand it more or less . If it ’ s coming from a motocross background or whatever , I don ’ t know . On a motocross dirt track , growing up doing this and not really doing any road racing . Immediately the first time I rode a road bike in the wet was in the Australian championship , but I was fast . It ’ s just something that comes natural , but it ’ s also something you have to work on . Over the race weekend if it ’ s wet , I will ride .”
Dovizioso rained out of latest test
After an inauspicious testing debut aboard Aprilia ’ s RS-GP at Jerez in April , much was riding on Andrea Dovizioso ’ s second outing for the Italian factory at Mugello . But the weather dampened any high hopes for both the 35-year old and Aprilia as rain afflicted the two day outing on 11th and 12th of May .
Full-time rider Aleix Espargaro appeared mildly frustrated this recent outing failed to lead to Dovizioso getting any more comfortable aboard the machine which hasn ’ t finished more than 8 seconds of a race winner in 2021 . “ The two tests he did for us were both useless . In the wet it ’ s difficult to understand something . In Jerez test he was not very fast due to conditions of the wind . And it was just his first test . At the moment there are no advantage from his tests ,” he said .
Predictably , Dovizioso was once again grilled on his future . But the 15-time MotoGP™ race winner was unwilling to give much away . A third test is necessary before making a decision . “ I don ’ t think it ’ s important to speak about racing this year because it wasn ’ t in the plan . And I couldn ’ t still push with this bike . So in my opinion there is no reason , in this moment , to think about racing . And we will see , maybe I will have a chance to do some other tests but we have to speak about that . I ’ m living my life in this moment day by day because I don ’ t have any stress .”
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