No rest for the World Championship which, after the Japanese GP, immediately flight off to Australia.
Also this time we were able to smell the podium, and to see that possibility flying away like an helium balloon.
Tatsuki has no fault, he could have had more merits, that’s true, but he definitely made an amazing race in a circuit that remains splendid every year.
The only thing that upset me was the stop during MotoGP official practices. They’ve been postponed until Sunday morning, when they did qualifying, warm up and race all together. The most unfair thing is that Moto2 and Moto3 went on riding their bikes with oil on track, rain and a very strong wind that made Antonelli crash at 247 km/h, dislocating his shoulder; that happened while MotoGP, with the same conditions, has been suspended by the race commission. Was it really too dangerous just for MotoGP riders? Too often two different weights and two different measures are used.
Sunday: Tatsuki at the beginning of the race committed a mistake and he went out at the first corner. I immediately thought: “ok, he’s out!”, but this is not what happened, he did a good job not crashing and he went back on track in 22nd position. Step by step, he was able to catch each rider, but in a clean way, calm and without being too aggressive, the exactly way I would have told him if I was able to talk to him during the race. So, without any doubt he went on, right to the finish line. This 4th place tasted very different from the one in Motegi, which smelled like chicken.
A special praise goes to Lorenzo Dalla Porta, another great history, began from minibikes, the story of a simple and genuine family that believed in a dream! Somebody is saying that the team Leopar had a faster bike than all the others, but what I think is that he was the one who made the difference, a rider that made just very few mistakes this season and who demonstrated to be the very best of this year.
It is absurd to think that Nicco, even if he didn’t ride after Silverstone, is still 6th on the world championship and we, as a team, are 3rd, with only one rider taking points in the last five races.
Now we are already in Malaysia, were a simple 90% of humidity is waiting for us. This is an historical place for us, important, for good and for bad, but we’re still here. We’ll try to improve our results from Phillip Island, with a smile on our faces and what the f**k ….No!! Smiling and full gas!!!
-PaoloSic58-