What better way to keep your MotoGP™ senses tingling on a non-Grand Prix weekend than listening to Episode 39 of the MotoGP™ Podcast! For you this week is a complete roundup of what went down at the Shell Malaysia Motorcycle Grand Prix with John Hopkins and Simon Crafar, with Malaysian superstar Hafizh Syahrin (Red Bull KTM Tech 3) joining the team for an in-depth chat.
Five things you'll only know from listening to this week’s Last On The Brakes podcast:
- Hopkins explains why we saw some more ambitious moves from Rossi on the Ducatis: “Sometimes you have to make the most dangerous passes and in places where you might not normally pass, it's almost as if you want to knock the rider wide and knock them off line, just so that they don't come shooting straight back at you on the straightaway. You've got to do absolutely everything and it's just such a frustrating thing to go through!”
- Fabio Quartararo (Petronas Yamaha SRT) got a taste of what it’s like being Danilo Petrucci (Ducati Team) at Sepang: “We had pretty high temperatures compared to previous days. His average start meant that he was following other bikes, and basically the front tyre pressure went through the roof which is caused by temperature. The hotter the tyre gets, the more pressure it has... Petrucci has a lot of front tyre with it over heating. So because Fabio's went so high, he couldn't stop. And that's the same complaint that Petrucci always has when the temperature goes up.”
- Johann Zarco (LCR Honda Idemitsu) APOLOGISED to Team Suzuki Ecstar after colliding with Joan Mir at Sepang, causing him the Frenchman to crash out of the race... Crafar caught up with Davide Brivio to find out more: “At the end of the race, Johann walked into Suzuki and said 'sorry' to Joan Mir! They got talking and it turns out Johann was following Jack Miller who was a little bit wide in this turn, Johann was right behind him and wanting to get past. Mir is third in the line and sees that they were going a bit wide so tries to sneak through on the inside. Johann at the same time, tried to dive on the inside of Miller, swerves to the right and doesn't see Joan... so just a racing incident!”
- Syahrin stole money from his father’s workshop to practice riding mini bikes as a kid growing up in Malaysia: “When I know that one shopping centre had a pocket bike rental... for about 5 euro per 15 minutes. I didn't have money at that time but my father had a workshop. Sometimes his hands got dirty and so when the customer paid, I took the money and then put in the locker. So sometimes (when they paid) 50, 30, 80... I would take 5-10 to have enough money to go and ride the pocket bike!”
- AND his manager gave him the fright of his life before telling him he’ll be a MotoGP™ rider in 2018: “I was preparing for 2018 to be more competitive in Moto2™. But I got a call from Razlan, the CEO of Sepang Circuit while I was cycling up a mountain, I took my phone but I wasn't focussing on that, was just in case of emergency. So the phone was ringing many times so eventually I told my trainer Alex to stop, I thought there was a problem! I took the call and Razlan said 'we have two news for you, which do you want to hear first?' I said 'bad news first....' and he told me I wouldn't race in Moto2™ in 2018. So I said, 'WHAT?! Where will I go? Asian championship??' He tried to play with me a while... I was already starting to feel down, so I asked him what the good news was. That's when he told me I would ride in MotoGP™ for Tech3 Yamaha. I couldn't believe it!”
Get in touch with the MotoGP™ Podcast team on Twitter by using #MotoGPPodcast and tell them who your rider, surprise and disappointment of the day was. Stay tuned for Episode 40 next week!