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Friday's good feelings turned into a more than positive Saturday for Franco Morbidelli. Starting from the fourth slot on the grid, the Pertamina Enduro VR46 Racing Team rider got onto the podium in the Sprint race in Lusail. Although late race tire wear threatened the third position held by Franco throughout the race, allowing Fabio Quartararo and Fermin Aldeguer to pull behind the #21 Ducati in the last few laps.
"After 7 or 8 laps I had a big drop in both tires, I couldn't maintain the speed in the middle of the corners anymore and I lost so much to Alex and Marc Marquez. That was the main problem, because at the beginning of the race I was feeling very good and very fast - declared Morbido at the end of the race - I tried to close the doors to Quartararo and Aldeguer? Three or four people already asked me after the race, but I honestly didn't realize how close they were, because I was thinking about maintaining my pace. I'd like to say that I tried to hold on, but the Sprint is so full of adrenaline that I have a hard time paying attention to many things. So, I was very focused on my riding and the riders in front of me."
However, the Sprint was useful for the Italian-Brazilian to understand a few things ahead of tomorrow's Grand Prix: "Yes. There will certainly be things to see and analyze, to cross-reference what I saw with the data."
Among the things Morbidelli noticed was the fact that Marc Marquez had more than his brother Alex. "At first it seemed he didn't, they struggled a little bit. But then yes, you could feel it," commented Franco, who seems to have clear ideas on how to try to reduce the gap to the two Catalan brothers: "Trying to improve day by day and work. They started with a really incredible pace, but little by little we are all getting closer. There's a small group behind them coming up. We'll see how soon we close the gap."
Watching the two Spaniards closely, however, did not allow the Ducati rider to glean any secrets that could help him catch up to their performance more quickly.
"When I'm behind them I can only see where they go," he noted, "To understand how to improve I have to first improve my feeling and get to the top of my feeling. Then we can figure out how to catch up to their performance. Always assuming I will be missing something when I get to the top of my feeling."
Having achieved a third podium with Ducati, is it more happiness or the desire to catch up with the Marquez brothers and battle for victory? "When you get to the podium you have to be happy and I am. I am very happy," he concluded.
