Dani Pedrosa completed his second wildcard appearance of the MotoGP season at the San Marino GP. After a good performance at the Spanish GP last April, he was once again in good shape, finishing in fourth place.

The Red Bull KTM test rider even fought for the podium until the final laps but didn’t have the pace to challenge Francesco Bagnaia, who finished third. In any case, Pedrosa achieved an unusual result for wildcard riders, who often participate to test new components on their bikes in a competitive environment.

It’s worth noting that no wildcard rider had achieved such a strong result since the 2018 Valencia GP when Michele Pirro finished fourth, riding a Ducati.

O conteúdo Since 2018 a wildcard hadn’t achieved such a strong result as Dani Pedrosa aparece primeiro em Motorcycle Sports.

The title fight in MotoGP has been reignited, with Jorge Martín now trailing Francesco Bagnaia by just 36 points as they head into the Asian leg of the season. There are 37 points at stake in each Grand Prix.

By winning the sprint race and the main race at the San Marino GP, the Prima Pramac rider has gained 14 points on the Ducati rider. At the same time, he has distanced himself from the third-placed Marco Bezzecchi (Mooney VR46 Racing Team/Ducati), who has now closed in on the top and is 65 points behind Bagnaia.

Brad Binder (Red Bull KTM) remains fourth, and even gained a point on the fifth-placed Aleix Espargaró (Aprilia). Fabio Quartararo is the top Monster Energy Yamaha rider in 11th place, just ahead of his teammate Franco Morbidelli.

The highest-ranked Honda rider is still Takaaki Nakagami (LCR Honda) in 17th place, despite not scoring points in Misano. It’s worth noting that Dani Pedrosa (Red Bull KTM) climbed to 18th place in the championship standings after his fourth-place finish yesterday, ahead of some of the regular riders.

Standings:

O conteúdo Title fight in MotoGP reignited after Misano aparece primeiro em Motorcycle Sports.

One week after their dominance in Barcelona, Aprilia faced some challenges at the MotoGP San Marino GP. Their best rider was Maverick Viñales, who couldn’t do better than fifth place.

Asked if the true picture of Aprilia’s performance is that from Catalan GP or Misano, the Spaniard said: ‘They are two different tracks. Honestly, here everyone is fast because there is a lot of grip. I think as a reference we have to take Assen, we have to take Silverstone, where the grip level is medium – is not very high or very low. So, on those tracks we were quite fast’.

Regarding Misano, Viñales told that it’s not easy to make a difference: ‘In Misano is always tricky: Ducati is doing 2.000 laps here, KTM were testing previously. It’s true [Lorenzo] Sava was testing here, but he was testing very new things that we can’t even try. So, in this track everyone is going fast – I include myself in this pack. But now for me it’s very important to improve the braking in the test day and we’ll take profit in the next tracks, of course’.

O conteúdo ‘We have to take Assen and Silverstone as a reference’ – Maverick Viñales aparece primeiro em Motorcycle Sports.

KTM has had a good season, showing clear progress, with the precious help of Dani Pedrosa, who took two fourth places at the San Marino Gp this weekend.

Jack Miller, on the other hand, seems to be on a downward path with the Austrian machine at the moment. The results have been getting worse and worse, and after a modest 15th place in Saturday’s Sprint, the Australian driver was sidelined for Sunday’s race, but he hopes that tomorrow’s test will help improve his results:

– As I was turning in, (Michele) Pirro hit me in the middle of the ribs. That was it. So there’s not much more to say. It wasn’t the best weekend for us. Tomorrow’s test is going to be very important. It’s going to be very important.

The #43 also said that he knows the potential of his KTM, and just needs to regain the confidence he says he lost after the Dutch Grand Prix in Assen:

– We have a fantastic engine, a strong chassis and we are working tirelessly with me and the team. And I’m trying. I’m trying my best to get the most out of it (…) In Assan, we went in a different direction and then when we came back, it wasn’t an immediate response (in the direction we wanted) (…) And the tracks didn’t help me much or the feeling. I don’t really like this, blaming one thing or another, it’s difficult. It’s just one of those things. It’s one of those things that we all go through in these moments. It’s not my first time struggling to understand what’s going on or working to understand (what’s missing). And it certainly won’t be the last.

O conteúdo ‘It’s not my first time struggling’ – Jack Miller aparece primeiro em Motorcycle Sports.

Marc Marquez ended today’s race in Misano in good shape and in a competitive position, after being seventh, considering this to have been ‘better than expected’. The Repsol Honda Team rider went further and said he did ‘a perfect race’, despite the position, and was happy with his final stance and how he got to defend in the end.

After the race, the former world champion who is having a difficult season, began by saying: ‘It went better than I expected, I thought I’d finish tenth’.

The rider recalled the first session of the day, and how he managed his main race: ‘In the Warm Up, I didn’t attack and all I could think about was the race. For my part, I rode a perfect race. I pushed when I had to. When I caught Viñales, I started to lose ground, both tyre-wise and physically. I don’t have any problems, but when you attack hard, it’s difficult with the bike’.

Despite the attacks from Raul Fernandez and Luca Marini right at the end, with both being super close to him, he was proud with the way he held on, and… how he was much faster overall, than the next Honda on track to finish – Stefan Bradl, test rider:

– I defended myself well in the end. Physically I’m 100%, I was 20 seconds quicker than the second Honda. This situation with Honda isn’t good, but I’m doing my best and training hard. I had a strong second half of the race but I didn’t overdo it. I want to do all the races because physically that will help me in the future.

O conteúdo ‘It went better than I expected and for me I rode perfectly; I was 20 seconds faster than the second Honda’ – Marc Marquez aparece primeiro em Motorcycle Sports.

Maverick Viñales crossed the finish line in fifth place at the MotoGP San Marino GP. The Aprilia rider maintained this position for virtually the entire race on Sunday in Misano but didn’t have any chance to go further ahead.

The Spaniard told the journalists that he has mixed feelings about this race: ‘I’m happy that today was, let’s say, a good day on the results. But not a good day on the bike, I didn’t felt great. But, top five, so that’s fantastic. If the day I don’t feel good, I am on the top five, it means that we improved a lot and this is something great’.

Viñales is puzzled by the behavior of the rear of the bike in conditions of higher grip: ‘I don’t know why I struggled so much with the rear. It’s strange, because on Friday I was so good on the rear. I don’t know if the grip that increased… we didn’t get the benefit, we got worst. It’s pretty interesting to understand why. I struggle on entry. In Austria I was so strong on entry, in Montmeló. So, looks like that on the tracks there is no grip I can brake very late. It’s a little bit strange; on tracks where there is grip I need to brake earlier because otherwise I don’t make the corner. The guys are understanding that’.

That said, the #12 considers the test day at Misano is a opportunity to make progress: ‘Tomorrow is a good day to improve because we have no pressure, we can change the bike, modify, change the balance. It’s an interesting day’.

O conteúdo ‘If when I don’t feel good I’m on the top five, we improved a lot’ – Maverick Viñales aparece primeiro em Motorcycle Sports.

Dani Pedrosa returned to competition this weekend and after a Saturday in which he came very close to taking the podium in the Sprint race, it was expected that the Spanish rider would also be competitive in Sunday’s long race.

The start of the race looked like it was going to jeopardize a good result for the #26, but the Spanish rider didn’t give up, and after difficulties in the debrief, he recovered his rhythm to finish in 4th place:

– I had a good race. But right after the start, in the first corner, I almost crashed in front of everyone. I had to warm up my tires as slowly as possible, because for the first 3/4 laps I didn’t have much grip. Then, at that point, the others overtook me and I couldn’t keep up the pace. Honestly, in the first few laps, when my tires regained good grip, I was able to pick up my pace and then Brad (Binder) fell off (…) . So I was always in 4th place.

The KTM test rider also assumed that he was thinking about victory when he started to gain ground on the three Ducati riders in front of him, even though when he got to the back of Franscesco Bagnaia’s bike he was on the limit:

– For a moment, I thought it could happen (to get to the front of the race). I was trying, honestly. There was a moment when the three of them were together and I was closing the gap in the middle of the race. (…) They can start fighting, maybe there’s a chance for us to win here, and even then it’s a long way. We don’t know how the tires will run out for everyone. So it’s better to stay close and I was getting closer. I was closing the gap and then I had a big moment. I lost the gap again. And towards the end of the race Pecco started to struggle a bit. He dropped his pace again and I managed to catch him again in the last 3/4 laps. I was putting pressure on him and when he felt the pressure he started to look back and covered all the braking points and protected his position. And I was on the limit at the end, to be honest.

O conteúdo ‘Maybe there’s a chance for us to win here’ – Dani Pedrosa aparece primeiro em Motorcycle Sports.

Razlan Razali was very happy in San Marino after seeing both CryptoDATA RNF MotoGP Team riders performing well in sunday’s race, which meant the best season result for for both combined.

Founder and Team Principal of the team, Razali addressed the way the race went for Miguel Oliveira (sixth): ‘That was a very satisfying result for both our riders with Miguel sixth and Raul his best ever MotoGP position with eighth. It’s not an easy weekend especially for Miguel, coming back from Barcelona, he’s not always comfortable with the bike. But, the strength of Miguel is what he is, he’s able to pull himself together and be where he is, sixth position is a very good result for us’.

As for Fernandez (eighth), who isn’t having an easy season, showed signs of growth, with Razali focusing the trust and belief he has on the #25: ‘For Raul, we always say we believe in him, we know that he can deliver and step by step he got there. And what he did today was amazing, it’s always hard to overtake Marc [Marquez] but with eighth position is an amazing result for him’.

Razali then pointed to the season now heading to Asia with some caution as everything will be new for everyone:

– So, now we finish the European round before we return to Valencia at the end of the season, we will head to India for the first time where in some ways it will be equalised for everyone. No one has been there, we don’t know what the track conditions are like and we have no data, whoever can adapt the fastest will have an advantage. So we look forward to be there in the next one week and we’ll see you in India.

O conteúdo Razlan Razali was all smiles: ‘Miguel Oliveira didn’t had an easy weekend but pull himself together; Raul Fernandez was amazing’ aparece primeiro em Motorcycle Sports.

CryptoDATA RNF MotoGP Team had secured today the best ever result overall for their team in MotoGP after Miguel Oliveira finished the San Marino GP in sixth place, while Raul Fernandez was eighth, leaving Wilco Zeelenberg naturally proud with both riders, highlighting the competitiveness that can happen if two major things combine.

The Team Manager of RNF recalled how important such results are for the team, which is debuting this season with a partnership with Aprilia: ‘We finished sixth and eighth in Misano and we’re very happy with these results. Of course, having a very strong results with both boys always means a lot. We jumped up two positions for the team, which is very important’.

He then got to look at the riders performance, starting with the spaniard: ‘Raul had a good pace all weekend and he did a very strong race which we are very proud of. He made a good step; his previous best was P10 and today’s result in P8 is fantastic’, before speaking of the portuguese:

– Meanwhile, Miguel struggled a little bit this week compared to Barcelona, but he had a great start and a good pace, and earning P6 is a very good result for him.

Zeelenberg then made point of saying that the fact that Fernandez and Oliveira started off well and then pushed consistently was key: ‘This is something that we should not forget at the moment; if you have a good start and a good pace everything is possible. It is positive vibes throughout the team today, so we continue with the test tomorrow as we have many things to do. And once we finished this, we will start our seven-header overseas and later be back in Europe for Valencia’.

O conteúdo Wilco Zeelenberg thrilled with best ever result for RNF duo: ‘If you have a good start and a good pace everything is possible’ aparece primeiro em Motorcycle Sports.

Miguel Oliveira ended up sixth at the MotoGP San Marino GP. The rider from CryptoDATA RNF MotoGP Team did a solid race at Misano this Sunday and was not too far away from Maverick Viñales (Aprilia) ahead of him.

The Portuguese rider feels that this is a good result after, addmiting he was unable to get closer to fifth place: ‘I’m happy with the race, finally today we had a better feeling with the bike. We knew the rear tyre choice was gonna be already helping us a little bit more. The bike became a little bit more smooth and nice to ride. But still far from… not really far, but a little bit everywhere to challenge for more. But I’m happy with the performance. Finally I could stay most of the race close to Viñales. At one point I tried to get closer, but I had already a track limits warning, so I couldn’t really afford to risk much more. Sixth place, overall considering how I’ve started the weekend is a good result’.

Asked where lies the differences between him and Viñales, Oliveira said: ‘The usual places where we know. In the first sector and second sector I could get closer to him, but then in sector three he went a little bit faster. But, overall, we had more or less the same pace’.

Aprilia hadn’t the most competitive bike at Misano and according to the Almada-born rider the reason isn’t very clear yet: ‘Super, super clear, no. But we have an idea. I don’t know in terms of setting if we really can try something really different tomorrow, but I don’t think it would make everything great or more competitive. But considering overall we put three bikes on top ten, so I wouldn’t say… for sure it’s not a track where we can clearly win, but if we struggle like this is not too bad’.

O conteúdo ‘I tried to get closer to Viñales, but I couldn’t afford to risk much more’ – Miguel Oliveira aparece primeiro em Motorcycle Sports.