MotoGP Riders reflect on Circuit of the Americas

MotoGP Rider Quotes

2018 MotoGP – Round Three – Circuit of the Americas

Marc Marquez – P1

“This weekend I really gave it my all. Today I was totally focused, as I wanted to remain perfect here at Austin. I don’t think that ever in my career have I had such a race, pushing so hard from the first lap. Today I felt that this was the right way and was able to do it, in part because my bike’s setup helped me a lot, so thanks to everyone in my garage as they’ve worked really well and hard. Yesterday I was a bit ill, and even today I didn’t feel I had perfect energy, but it turned out to be a good race anyway – a lonely one, but sometimes it goes like that. Last night when I was going to sleep, I thought about the strategy, and today I followed it. Even in the warm-up, I tried to simulate the first laps of the race, going out on new tyres and with a full tank. That was in the plan. I told the team that I wanted to try to lead the race from the beginning and pull a gap. So in the first three or four laps, I pushed a bit more than usual, and then I managed the advantage. Today I had special motivation. There was a lot of pressure, but I like the pressure, as it helps to keep focused. I felt a special feeling on the last lap, when I passed in front of Nicky’s flag. So, I’m happy with the result and for recovering ground in the Championship, but now we go back to Europe, where we must be consistent, because look who’s leading the standings: Dovi, the most consistent rider! The feeling with my bike is very good, and the same has been true in Qatar and Argentina, so we’ll try and continue this way.”

Circuit of the Americas MotoGP - Round 3 — Circuit of the Americas MotoGP – Round 3

Maverick Vinales – P2

“Starting from the front row made it much easier, and I could breathe more calmly. I was able to control the first three or four riders quite well. I’m happy overall, because the team focused on the weekend in a different way, and that was so good. I think we know how to go fast with this Yamaha and today we proved it. Our bike seems to be stronger than it was here last year, I felt good during the race. Even though it was difficult to challenge Marc, and even with the difficulties we had, we still came in second. I didn’t want to make the same mistake as I made in last year’s race, so I gave up on trying to chase Marc and controlled the gap to Andrea even more. I feel positive, but we have to keep pushing. Every day I’m feeling better on the bike and we’re going to go up and up. The feeling with the bike has changed a lot. I feel good on the bike right now and we’ve got to keep it like that. I can’t wait for the race in Jerez. Now we’ll have four or five races where I like the tracks a lot, I really enjoy riding there. We’re going to go for the win, I know we are not far away, and we’re going to push for it.”

Andrea Iannone – P3

“I’m really happy about this podium, finally we have arrived here. We’ve come back after a really difficult period for me and Suzuki, but now things are better. This year we started well, but I struggled a lot during qualifying, especially in Argentina – when you start from further back it’s really hard to recover, over-take, and use your pace. But during this weekend I’ve found a good feeling with the bike, and we have found a good balance with the braking. I had been struggling with the front-end under braking but now we understand the way to go and I’m really happy about this. We’re still working to improve some areas but I’m really happy about my work and Suzuki’s work because we have always believed in our potential, and step-by-step we are getting closer, this is important. I have learned a lot and we’ll try to stay on top.”

Valentino Rossi – P4

“It was a good weekend because I was already in the top-5, but in the race I expected to be a bit more competitive, to try and fight for the podium. I knew that Marquez and Maverick were a bit stronger. I hoped I was fast enough for a fight for the podium with Iannone, but Andrea was faster than I was. I wasn’t able to arrive, to attack. I suffered a little bit in the hot conditions, because the front gave me more problems than in the practice. We have to work. Now we have ten days. The next round will be in Europe, where the situation will be different.”

Andrea Dovizioso – P5

“Even though I struggled a lot today, I’m pleased to return to Europe leading the championship! This year I was hoping we were going to be a bit more competitive both in Argentina and here in Texas, but we struggled like in 2017. If however we look at the points standings twelve months ago, I came to Jerez a long way behind the leaders and now we are leading the championship. It’s true that the classification is very tight, but we’ve made a big step forward and even though the weekend began in a really difficult way for us, in the end we made the right choices of set-up, fairing and also tyres and we took home a good result, useful for the championship.”

Johann Zarco – P6

“It was a difficult weekend. After a good qualifying, I didn’t start well. Before the race I was crossing my fingers for the podium, but I think the others just did a better job. I knew where my weak points were on the track, but I tried to maintain the gap and play with it, but it was too difficult. This doesn’t mean I struggled with the tyres, because the pace from the start till the end was quite constant, only not fast enough. When Dovizioso overtook me a few laps to the end, I couldn’t match his pace. I expected to fight with him, but my weak points were worse than his. So, it means finishing sixth, when I’m struggling a lot is a lot better than nothing.”

Dani Pedrosa – P7

“I’m more than satisfied with having been able to finish this race and get some good points, and I’d like to thank everyone who has helped me in these days, as well as all the fans for the support they gave me. Honestly, before coming here I wasn’t even sure I would be able to do the practices. It was a tough weekend, especially at this track; in some other circuits you might handle the situation a little better with a bit less effort, but this one is super-physical. I wasn’t able to enjoy the race like I usually do, even though I took some painkillers that eased the pain a little. That allowed me to focus a bit more, though I don’t have much strength. I had a decent start and tried to stick with the guys in front as much as possible. In the end I struggled to control my bike, but I managed and I’m happy with the outcome. Now we have some more days to try and recover as much as possible before Jerez. It’s a track I like, so we’ll see how much better I’ll feel.”

Tito Rabat – P8

“I am very happy with our first three races of the season, with the great work my team is doing and with the performance of my Ducati. We had another very good weekend, despite the fact that the track conditions in practice were difficult and we only had good conditions in FP2. We took a risk with our tyre choice for the race and the gamble worked out. It was a lot of fun. At the beginning, I struggled to get past Bradley Smith und later, it was a real thrill to ride with Lorenzo, Rins and Miller. In the end, I had a grat battle with Jack and I managed to pass him in the final lap. This result gives me another boost for our home race in Jerez.”

Jack Miller – P9

“I am very pleased especially as I was able to recover a lot of positions. It’s clear that we can do much better, especially in qualifying, but this is still a good result. After overtaking Lorenzo and Rabat I was convinced that I could easily finish in eighth but I made a small mistake. It doesn’t matter, we’ll do better in Jerez”.

Aleix Espargaro – P10

“We knew that this track would be one of the toughest for the RS-GP, plus yesterday we had difficulty with the setup, so my race started as an uphill battle. In spite of this, I was very focused and aggressive at the start. Already in the early laps I had overtaken a lot of other riders, beginning to make up positions. Today my bike truly worked well. The tenth place finish is not an exceptional result, but it was not simple starting from that far back. The only pity was not being able to get past the two riders ahead of me, but in the final laps, the tyre really deteriorated and I had very little traction. It was a solid race that makes us look toward the first European race with great confidence. Our level is high and we can be a surprise on more than one occasion.”

Jorge Lorenzo – P11

“For me it was a race to forget, and I’m very disappointed and sad. I was never able to lap with a competitive pace, I suffered a lot, as I feared, with used tyres and for this reason I had to slow my pace. Our bike requires a lot of physical effort on this type of circuit and opting for the hardest rear tyre didn’t help things at all. It’s a difficult moment and we have to analyze everything that has happened since the start of the championship, but I hope that starting from Jerez we will be able to reverse this negative trend.”

Danilo Petrucci – P12

“It was a difficult weekend. We managed to improve in qualifying and this gave me a lot of confidence. I thought I could be with the Top 10 group but soon after the start I lost a lot because I couldn’t get the tyre we chose to work well. It’s a pity, I’m very disappointed and I hope that this disappointment helps me to go faster in Jerez”.

Pol Espargaro – P13

“It was hard to change direction and hold these big bikes here! Each corner is hard but I think we did a good race and had a good weekend overall. Maybe we could have improved the setting a bit more because we were quite far from the others and this means we were ‘different’ and making some mistakes; I think we paid for that front tyre in the race. Overall I think we must be happy, we can take these three points and go back to Europe with more experience. I’m happy to go to Jerez because for these three races outside of Europe we don’t have that much info or data and it’s tough. We’ll go back and we’ll have Mika (Kallio) there to help us.”

Takaaki Nakagami – P14

“It was another points finish which I think is positive. But after our qualifying result we were thinking about the possibility of finishing in the top 10, but the race proved to be quite difficult. We had a different feeling on the rear tyre, but I tried my best during the race and I learned a lot in these 20 laps. We have to take the positives from this, it’s another two points in the championship. Honestly I was hoping in a better result but finishing as the best rookie is a nice feeling. Thanks again to my Team and Honda for the great job they have done this weekend for me and and I’m looking forward to the next race.”

Álvaro Bautista – P15

“What was important today was to find the good feeling we are looking for in this first part of the season and have not been able to find. In the race we continued struggling; I was lacking rear grip and couldn’t find any. We’ve made progress with turning the bike, but I lack traction when exiting corners and we are losing a lot of time with that. We will try to study the data and compare it with last year to see why this is lacking, as theoretically the tyres are the same last year. We hope to rectify the situation in Europe and feel better with the bike.”

Bradley Smith – P16

“It was a good weekend and I felt like I had some pace especially in the beginning where I made up three positions and was fighting with Jorge (Lorenzo). We took a gamble: Pol went with the soft front tyre and I went with the medium and with these temperatures I thought it would work but it just went off and there was nothing I could do. I held-in there until lap twelve and then it was understeering everywhere. I knew it might happen…but was hoping it didn’t! This is all part of the learning experience and figuring out what works with this motorcycle and how to improve. It is a bit frustrating to come away without any points but things were looking up this weekend so we have to be happy with that.”

Scott Redding – P17

“Our weekend has started off well, but then I was unable to progress as much as I would have liked to. I rode the race with the hardest tyre both on the front and on the back and the situation improved in terms of the front end, but I was lacking grip at the rear. To be honest, I expected more, but I can’t be disappointed: Aleix did an excellent job today and that demonstrates that the bike has good potential, I just need to keep improving and learning.”

Tom Lüthi – P18

“It is so difficult at this track in turn one when you start back on the grid, it was a big mess there. I lost some positions and was stuck back there for many laps. By mid-race I had problems with the front and it was difficult to turn the bike. At this track we never found a really comfortable set-up although the work from the team is brilliant in helping me to learn as a rookie. We are motivated to improve.”

Cal Crutchlow – P19

“Of course today we’re very unsatisfied with the result. Going into the race we were leading the championship and coming out we’re now fourth after I crashed on lap seven of the race. It was a disappointing end to what was a good weekend and a great pace we set, I’m sorry to the team. I made a mistake in the last corner, I didn’t have a great feeling with the brake leaver this weekend and I wanted to try and make a good run on Johann (Zarco) that lap and get past him to the podium fight. I definitely had the pace, but I made a mistake in the last corner and went down. We now have to look forward as a team to the next race in Jerez, but I want to thank my crew for their hard work as we were on the pace throughout the weekend and during the race. We just look ahead and take the positives now.”

Xavier Simeon – P20

“On one side I am happy and on the other side I’m frustrated, because we followed in line with the other Ducatis, with the hard tyre compound on the rear, that I had never tried in practice. We thought this would be a good choice, but at the beginning of the race I didn’t have a lot of confidence. Later on I managed to speed up and I had the same pace as the guys riding within the Top 15. It was a weekend to gain experience and in which we had a decent rhythm at times. veery time I go out, I enjoy riding this bike more, but I still ride with a safety margin to avoid mistakes. Now at Jerez we will try to make another step.”

Franco Morbidelli – P21

“I struggled a lot during this race to ride the way I like to and now we need to understand the reasons why and work to improve. I feel I need to find my own way to set-up and ride this bike for my style. At the moment I am not there.”

Alex Rins – DNF

“We have missed our target and I did struggle during this weekend. During the race I tried to keep my mind clear and focused and tried to enjoy, things were going well until the crash. I made some small mistakes but I still felt that we improved a lot during the weekend as a whole – we’ve learned a lot of information in terms of the bike. As you can see, Andrea made a good race and this shows that the bike is working well. So the aim is to ‘reset’ and go to Jerez in two weeks’ and try to do well. From the beginning of the season I felt the bike had good potential and I’m sure we can do more good things this year. Despite missing the race in Jerez last year due to my injury, I feel that I have a lot more experience in general and I’ll try to be fast.”

Karel Abraham – DNF

“I had to retire from the race because of the pain I had after the crash yesterday. It’s a weird feeling, because I can walk well, run and train in the gym, but at the same time I have a lot of pain in my wrist, my fingers, the palm of my hand, my arm and my back. In the warmup I had to start working with other muscles to help the muscles that had become sore, and in the race they also caused me discomfort. In the end, the team sent me a message to come back to the box. I wanted to try riding, but it was hard to change direction or slow down. Before the Jerez race I will have to do rehabilitation and I hope my muscles recover before I get back on track. I hadn’t been crashing this season, but yesterday I hit the ground when going at more than 200 km/h and it was pretty painful. I’m happy because nothing is broken, but I haven’t been able to compete in a race where I could have been up there with my teammate fighting for the points. Unfortunately, my body did not allow me to give my all today.”

Hafizh Syahrin – DNF

“I felt really strong at the start of the race, but maybe I was pushing a bit too much on the brakes. I had some great sensations and a truly good pace, but honestly, I’m a bit disappointed for myself. This morning we had a huge crash and didn’t try a different setup, therefore we had to go back to the Free Practice settings and the bike was quite soft. Anyway, I was one of the strongest rookies on this difficult track, but leaving it a bit defeated to lose the points of round three. I just lost the front, which was maybe because I tried to fight with a Ducati, which is very fast on the straight, so I tried to make up for it on the brake. Yet, I’m sure to be back strong at the next race.”

Team Managers

Massimo Meregalli – Yamaha Team Director

“Second and fourth are good results for our team after a difficult last GP. The weekend in Austin is never very easy for us, but after yesterday’s qualifying we were quite confident that we could give a good performance. Maverick and Valentino were cutting through the field together. Maverick’s race pace was fast, he rode consistent 2’05s laps, collected some very important points for the championship, and closed in considerably on the top of the championship standings. Valentino was also competitive at the start of the race and fought for a top result. He suffered a bit with his front tyre due to the heat, but this fourth place is still a good way to come back. Overall, we’re satisfied because we made another step. We improved the bike and are looking to confirm the findings we made here this weekend at the next round back in Europe.”

Ken Kawauchi – Suzuki Technical Manager

“It was a good race again. This weekend was a bit of a pity for Alex, but Andrea was very fast and consistent during all the sessions, and finally he could get the podium. I’m very happy as both riders have now had a podium, and this is very good for Suzuki and all the team. So we hope to continue to challenge and fight for podiums with both riders as we move into the European rounds.”

Davide Brivio – Suzuki Team Manager

“It’s a really good feeling to be back on the podium once again. I’m very pleased because we were able to get the podium with Andrea, who has struggled during the first two races. But this weekend he had a good feeling from Friday onwards, and when he’s able to find this good feeling, he is very fast. I hope this race will be the beginning of trend where he feels able to use his potential and the potential of the bike. To have two podiums in a row, one with each rider, is important and nice for us. Unfortunately Alex had a difficult weekend and a small crash, but we look forward to the next race and the return to Europe. We hope to continue this momentum and competitiveness. We’re happy and we aim to enjoy more races like this.”

Herve Poncharal – Tech3 Yamaha Team Manager

“We knew this track was not the easiest one for us, plus the weather didn’t help. Overall, it’s been a tough weekend, but I think Johann as usual and as always showed great determination, worked really hard, pushed hard and got a fantastic qualifying position, that allowed us to eventually start from the front row. He had a good start, but we could see that the top 4 guys had a better pace than us. Then we concentrated on keeping our head down. He did that very well, but we also knew that Dovizioso has a strong bike, is a clever rider and to be in front for so many laps is never an advantage. We could understand that we’re going to lose the battle for fifth, but very wisely Johann took the 10 points for sixth, finishing as the first independent rider. A full factory bike has clearly an advantage on a track like this, so we are very proud. Now we arrive in Europe, where for sure Jerez and Le Mans will be more favorable for us and we can only go back to Europe happy with the job done so far this year. On the other hand, I feel really sorry for Hafizh, who did another excellent weekend. It could have been a really strong finish, but the crash in the warm up trying a new tyre brought him almost out of contention. Bravely he wanted to start the race, he did, he was fast, up to eleventh position, but he made a small mistake that caused him the crash. Anyway, he is still leading the rookie classification, which we are very proud of. He’s learning and I think will be very strong in Spain and France. Get well soon, Hafizh, look at your body and recover well! See you all in beautiful Andalusia!”

Romano Albesiano – Aprilia Racing Manager

“We are very happy because today we showed our true potential, among other things on a track that is traditionally tough for us, with Aleix riding a stupendous comeback race. After the complicated qualifiers yesterday, we were the only ones who went with the hardest compound tyre on the front and the decision paid off, letting Aleix push hard for the entire distance, thereby recovering several positions. We have an outstanding bike and an outstanding team. Today’s performance confirms that. Scott is still at a stage where he needs to get to know the bike better in order to be able to take full advantage of it. Tomorrow we’ll be back on the track for a day of testing and we’ll work hard to dial it in to his comfort, trying various changes in terms of setup.”

Fausto Gresini – Aprilia Team Manager

“Already after doing a good warmup session, we had the feeling that we could ride a great race and with Aleix we succeeded in doing just that. The tenth place finish after starting nineteenth and battling in the finale for eighth is definitely positive. Also taking into consideration the difficulties we have always encountered on this track, I must give everyone a round of applause. There has been clear progress. It was not an easy weekend, but it is a good starting point for us in anticipation of the races in Europe.”

Mike Leitner – KTM Team Manager MotoGP

“To be fair this track is already difficult for other manufacturers that have been in this business for a long time and it was hard for us last year. It is a long, hard and bumpy layout. You need a very balanced bike to make a fast and stable lap-time and somehow we managed to give Pol something to take 13th position and we should be happy with these points. We’ll head back to Europe now and look to keep-on improving.”