What. A. Weekend. The 1000th Grand Prix at the record-breaking Le Mans had it all – clashes, crashes, comebacks and a home hero on the podium. Now, let’s have a look at some of the talking points that surfaced from across the weekend that you might not have seen too much about.
Jack Miller – “We’ve seen f****** everything”
After the race on Sunday, the Red Bull KTM Factory Racing star spoke about the competitiveness of this year’s World Championship.
“We've seen f****** everything. As you know, this Championship will continue like this. This year is like last year on steroids, again. There's so many bikes, everybody's so competitive, we see guys one week struggling, the next week they're riding away from everybody. So it's a tough one to gauge and honestly a tough one to understand who is your – obviously Pecco – but who is your real contenders.”
Marc Marquez – “It’s not the solution”
Repsol Honda and their Kalex chassis was one of the big talking points at Le Mans, as it was the first time Marc Marquez was able to give feedback after being side-lined through injury. Here’s what we said after the race:
“I mean of course the chassis is a small difference, and it's a small help. But it's not the solution. Mir was using the chassis, and Mir is a World Champion, and you saw he was struggling, he was in the back, and he crashed again. So we need to change something for the future, to be more competitive, to be safer, because every year, the Honda riders are top of the rankings for crashing. And it's not only me. Mir crashed 4 or 5 times in Jerez, now here again 3 times. So we need to keep working with the team to improve.”
Joan Mir – “Mentally, it destroys you”
After another tricky weekend, the Repsol Honda Team star spoke about his lack of feeling with the front end of his RC213V.
“It’s true that you have to be very focused on all the details, because you are like on a knife edge. More than physically, it's more mentally. Mentally it destroys you, because you have to be super, super precise, always fighting with the front, trying to not over try, because then it's worse. And it's a little bit difficult and completely different from the bike that I experienced before.”
Fabio Quartararo – “We’ve decided to go to the 2021 setting”
It wasn’t the homecoming the 2021 World Champion was hoping for at Le Mans as he and Yamaha continue to struggle with this year’s package. Now, it seems they’re going to revert back to old ways for Mugello onwards.
“Now I think the plan, and this is what we decide with our crew, that from the beginning of the year we are trying thousands of things setting up the bike, ‘there, there, there’.
“And we’ve decided to just go with the 2021 setting - and go. Whatever we have a problem. That's it. I need to adapt to the problem and see, but I think we try a lot of things on the bikes and the best we had is always to bring the base of two years ago and we decide to keep like that and that's it.”
Aleix Espargaro – “Augusto’s race was crazy”
Reigning Moto2™ World Champion Augusto Fernandez (GASGAS Factory Racing Tech3) rightly received some high praise from Aprilia Racing’s Espargaro, with the pair finishing P4 and P5 respectively in Le Mans.
“Yeah, Augusto’s race was crazy. Congratulations to him because it's not just about starting at the front, but he was able to overtake the KTMs and have a really solid pace. So I was very happy for Augusto.
“I know how difficult it is to stay and to maintain your position in this paddock, you have to fight like a lion and he's doing it in not the best situation… But he still works hard and he's the reigning Moto2 World Champion, so actually the last lap I had some opportunities to overtake him in the last split, but I decided to don't try because I think the risk was too high and I didn't want to ruin his race because what he did today was amazing.”