Morbidelli-Miller contact: the VR46 rider's anger

Another tough weekend for Franco Morbidelli. He leaves Assen with zero points, due to a Turn 1 incident with Jack Miller that also involved Diogo Moreira and Maverick Vinales. Despite the crash, the VR46 rider continued the race, which, however, ended after nine laps. Franky’s future is starting to take shape: at the end of this MotoGP season he will move to WorldSBK.

At the start of the Dutch GP there was contact between Morbidelli and Miller. Initially, it seemed the Italian-Brazilian had braked too late, but he clarified that he braked late to avoid the KTM rider. However, by running wide, he hit Moreira’s Honda and Vinales’ KTM, forcing all three to go off track. "It was a pretty bad race. I was pushed off track at the first corner. I was really lucky not to crash. Miller pushed me at Turn 1 and I ended up off track. Diogo, Maverick, and I went off track."

Morbidelli’s race got even more complicated lap after lap. After losing ground at the start, he caught up with Jack Miller again, but "we had another couple of contacts and I lost a lot of time again. Then I tried to climb back and recover, and when I reached Diogo, I passed him, but then I crashed because I was pushing too hard. I made a mistake."

Morbidelli hopes to improve his feeling at the next MotoGP race at the Sachsenring, before the summer break. "We need to focus on the positives from this weekend, namely a higher speed than usual. That’s it. We’ll try to keep this momentum, even if it’s not what I want. It’s not what I’m used to, but it’s what we have at the moment."

Franky continues to struggle to get into Q2. The priority remains improving lap times to line up on the front rows of the grid. "The Sachsenring is a track I like. It’s a place I like. It’s a place where I’ve won in the past." Then comes the World Championship break, which will be the right time to plan his future. His farewell to MotoGP now seems certain. For Morbidelli, the doors of Superbike could open with Ducati colors.

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