After another intriguing Friday at the Circuito de Jerez-Angel Nieto, MotoGP™ Legend Randy Mamola has shared his thoughts on what we need to be looking out for at the Gran Premio Red Bull de Andalucia.
Spanish GP vs Andalucia GP:
“A lot of riders and teams are going out there in FP1 and FP2 based on knowledge about what they felt from last week, and trying to change any issues that they might have. Because of this tremendous amount of heat and temperature out there, it’s very easy to crash. All should be very conscious about what’s going on out there.”
The Yamaha fight:
“Quartararo vs Viñales, separated by 4.6 seconds when as they crossed the line, there’s going to be some competition levels in that because they are competing in the same bike. And of course even Morbidelli, who finished 5th in the race, only 2.2 seconds behind Maverick’s second place. That’s how close the podium was. This weekend they will be working on race settings all the way down the line, the way they can go into this race trying to be very competitive against one another. Yamaha guys are available to see each others data and they will be studying. In FP2, Morbidelli was 4th, Viñales 5th, Quartararo was 6th and Rossi was 8th, and all were split by two tenths of a second. That’s how close things are. If somebody has an issue on a certain brand of motorcycle, it really shows and really reflects. It will be interesting to see how they get on.”
Ducati in the mix:
“We’ve got Dovi 3rd in the Championship and Miller 4th. They already know the competition level and what the pace should probably be depending on the temperature, it’ll be interesting to see if they can be with the Yamahas and/or if Miller is able to beat the official Ducati from Dovi. Also Petrucci, we’ll have to see if he can redeem himself and not being very fit last week after the crash. Also Bagnaia, after dropping back to finish 7th from fourth on the grid.”
KTM’s rise:
We’ve got a new rookie in the class in the shape of Brad Binder. He was doing a great job in the Spanish GP right behind Pol. My pick is that with KTM, Pol and Brad need to work together to get inside that podium step. It looked in last Sunday’s race, that it was Binder who had a slight edge. When everyone looks at the lap by lap times, that’s what is so important to watch. The KTM has made a really big step. Last year, Pol was finished 15 seconds behind and this year he was only 6 seconds behind and only 2.3 seconds from second place. A lot of competition to be in that top five. Good opportunity to be on the podium, but you got to play your cards right every lap.”
Injured riders:
Marc Marquez coming back, not riding until Saturday, it’s going to be interesting. For everybody sitting on their sofas – riders want to race, they don’t want to sit in their motorhome or from their sofa. If there’s any feeling that they can live through the pain barrier and are able to get some points, it’s going to work in their heads that they can do this. We saw Crutchlow riding and also Rins today. All three riders have completely different injuries and the pain barriers are completely different. Let’s see how Marc Marquez looking tomorrow and we will have to take it from there.”