“It was a difficult race both for me and for Maverick. We thought we were faster, but things went differently I have no regrets. If we were to start over in an hour, I’d use the same tyres and the same setup. The hard on the rear was the right option for me and, in fact, in the first 10 laps I was fast, like I was in FP4. After 12 or 13 laps tyre performance dropped a lot. The bike became hard to ride and in the finale I was in real trouble. We stress the rear tyre too much, that is the main problem we need to work on. it has happened other times whereas in other Grand Prix races we suffered less. When it happens, things go like they did today. I felt good in the first 10 laps. I did the second fastest lap of the race after Zarco. I was pushing but I was optimistic. Johann and the two Ducatis had the soft tyre on and I thought they would have a drop in performance. I thought I’d be able to battle for the podium. The soft tyre,Zarco is able to use it because he has a smooth riding style and he is lighter, whereas Maverick and I are more aggressive. Dovi is similar to us in riding, but the Ducati stresses the tyres less. He is happy. He beats the factory riders and laughs, but we are not satisfied finishing fifth. Our goal is not to finish ahead of him, but to battle with the best. I did half the race with Honda and Ducati and the other half with the Yamahas. I could see that we are suffering a lot.The new frame solved the problem with understeering. If we look at the Jerez and Barcelona races, we were never fast, whereas today we were for the first part of the race. However, the problem of stressing the tyre is still here. I don’t know which move we could have made differently for the setup. It seems like there is work to be done both on the mechanical and electronic side, so the upgrades should arrive from Japan. We had done worse on couple of tracks, but we expected it, whereas here we thought we would be able to stay with the best until the end. Today we wore the tyre more than last year. The championship is difficult both because of the gap in the standings and also because we are struggling, whereas Honda is the bike that has taken the biggest step forward. In any case, it is not smart to think about winning the Championship when you finish 7th. First, you need to focus on being competitive.
