Quartararo comes apart – as do his leathers
Viñales crew chief switch
Faced with the indignity of finishing 17s behind his team-mate at Mugello , Maverick Viñales confirmed crew chief Esteban Garcia had left the team , with Silvano Galbusera – formerly by Valentino Rossi ’ s side and working in Yamaha ’ s MotoGP test team before now – taking over the reins .
“ Basically , from 3 or 4 races ago I wasn ’ t feeling good , I didn ’ t feel the maximum potential ,” Viñales said . “ So , I was talking a lot with Yamaha , and Yamaha decided to face this with another strategy , which was to change the crew chief . Sometimes it was difficult to find a good setting on the bike , a good balance , and for
Honda mired the last 4 races I ’ ve been very fast in FP1 and then gone backwards all weekend .”
Asked if there could be no more excuses after a second crew chief change in three years , Viñales said , “ I never had excuses honestly . I just have facts . The fact is we have our team-mate winning every race , and we are doing top 10 . So , something is not working . The bike is fantastic , and we cannot lose that opportunity .”
Rejigging his team mid-season is a risk . As Jack Miller explained , “ It changes a fair bit ; it ’ s the heart and soul of your team right there .”
It was another miserable weekend for Honda . Both Marc Marquez and Pol Espargaro crashed out when riding over the limit . The problem of the ’ 21 RC213V is the chronic lack of rear grip that currently affects corner entry and exit .
As Marquez explained , “ It ’ s true that we have a problem , which is that in the acceleration side we cannot get the grip and in the entry we cannot stop the bike because the rear we don ’ t have the grip also . So it ’ s two different problems , in two different areas , but I think it ’ s going in the same way , the solution . So like in stopping we are braking late but we stop with a lot of banking , and when you stop with a lot of banking these things [ falls ] happen . But like and me and Pol today .”
On Saturday in Barcelona , a Fabio Quartararo victory was being spoken of as though it was a given . Yet for all the Frenchman ’ s free practice pace , he came unstuck in the most bizarre circumstances . His leather suppliers Alpinestars relayed how his chest protector started to move up toward his neck , possibly because his racesuit wasn ’ t zipped tightly .
It led to the bizarre sight of him unzipping the leathers and throwing away the chest protector at turn three in the closing laps . Just how Quartararo escaped a black flag in those closing laps – more for his own safety than his breaking of the letter of the law – was the subject of fierce post-race debate . Ultimately , a 3s penalty was handed out , demoting him to sixth place . He could count himself fortunate to leave Catalonia with ten points .
After the race , he didn ’ t give anything away . “ I just know that I had the leathers completely opened in the first corner , I think 5 laps to go , and I just tried to put [ the zip ] in a normal position again ,” he said . “ I couldn ’ t do it .” It ’ s rare a challenge quite literally comes apart at the seams as it did here .
On his approach for the seventh race of 2021 , where he risked a lot to fight among the top six before crashing , he said , “ I was Marc and for me it was the best 7 laps of the year . I was riding like I want . On the grid I said , ‘ today it ’ s time to take a risk ’. I mean it doesn ’ t matter where we are , doesn ’ t matter where I come from . I mean I don ’ t care what people say just I believe that today was the day to take a risk because for me just burn fuel and tyres riding for P12 , P14 is not me .”
But Marquez has never lost a MotoGP™ at the Sachsenring in the premier class . Could he be on for a comeback win this weekend ?
This week ... | MotoGP TM | 45