Jonas Folger (Monster Yamaha Tech 3) took another solid finish in Texas, but was disappointed with the P11 after some impressive results in Qatar and in Argentina - just beaten over the line by Jack Miller (Estrella Galicia 0,0 Marc VDS).
With a similar gap to the front but further back in positions, the German felt he made too many mistakes – and will be looking to analyse everything ahead of Jerez to get back in the fight nearer the front.
Jonas Folger, P11: "Eleventh is an ok result but I’m a bit disappointed to be honest. The positive thing is that we came home just less than 19 seconds off the race winners time which is more or less the same gap as last time in Argentina. In addition, Andrea (Dovizioso), who was sixth, was just five seconds ahead of us so, the top six would have been possible again today. But to achieve this was my failure because I made too many mistakes today, especially when the bike got lighter with less fuel. In contrast to Argentina, I was not able to adapt to the changing handling of the bike. I started to make mistakes and the guys got passed me easily.
"In the first two races, I was much stronger during the final stages when the bike got more and more light. I managed well to adapt my riding but it was different somehow today. We need to analyse this in more detail. The good thing is that we did not lose so much for sixth position. But I must keep working on myself and to learn to avoid making mistakes in order to be stronger in the decisive stages and in the battles for positions. I think, however, things like these also belong to the learning process.
"Beyond that, I can be satisfied with my start to this Championship after scoring points in each of the first three races. But when you have reached a certain position, you automatically set higher targets and we know that we are capable of this. Today, for example, we could have finished sixth if we had done better during practice days. We know and we are aware about our strength, but I have to adapt more quickly to the conditions during the weekend. But before the start of the season, I would never have thought that I would come in eight position overall to the first European race."