Franco Morbidelli: “My most difficult race of the year”
Franco Morbidelli admitted the Dutch MotoGP was his toughest race of the season, team-mate Fabio di Giannantonio now just three points behind.
For the first time this season Franco Morbidelli finished a Sunday MotoGP race outside of the top six, at Assen.
But the VR46 rider, whose best Dutch MotoGP finish is a fifth place in 2019, highlighted that "I've always struggled" at the famous TT circuit.
Fifth in the early stages, Morbidelli lost out to Maverick Vinales on lap 15 and then team-mate Fabio di Giannantonio on lap 21.
The Italian also received a long lap penalty for cutting the final chicane in his attempts to hold onto the position.
“At the end, the seventh place is a good result on my most difficult race of the year,” Morbidelli said.
“Here I’ve always struggled, and I knew it would happen this weekend too. But we struggled less than I thought, and this is positive.
“In the first half of the race, I was fighting for the top positions, then I started to struggle with the bike, and I had to slow down. I also had a Long Lap Penalty.
“Now we rest a little bit, and we prepare for Sachsenring, that’s a more suitable track for us.”
Morbidelli remains fourth in the world championship standings but is now just three points clear of di Giannantonio, on the GP25.
While Diggia said he enjoyed the on-track battle with Morbidelli, he signalled that it had cost him any chance of challenging Vinales for fifth.
“It’s been fun, I hope also the guys at home enjoyed it,” he said of the Morbidelli duel. “But on the race side maybe we lost a bit too much time and maybe also being with Maverick was possible.
“So maybe we have to work in the garage to be faster together and be in the front. But apart from this, at least we had some fun.”
VR46 Team Manager Pablo Nieto acknowledged that sixth and seventh places left the squad feeling a little flat.
“For sure we expected something more both for Fabio and Franco,” said Nieto.
“According to me, we must go back home and analyse all the data we have to understand what happened.
“We arrived motivated because of the podium [by di Giannantonio] at Mugello, but here in Assen we missed something.
“For the next race at Sachsenring, we aim to go back on top, and we hope to do better.”
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