Marc Márquez’s New Contract ‘Completely’ Changed Pecco Bagnaia’s race

Franco Morbidelli finished fifth in the MotoGP Japanese GP, placing in the top five for the third consecutive round. The Prima Pramac rider could have done even better after starting from sixth, but a small incident on the first lap had significant consequences for his race.

The Italian explained: ‘It was a strong race, a good performance. I got a good start, but I got touched by Marc at turn 3 and I went off losing some positions. And from then on, my race was completely different’.

According to Morbidelli, after that incident, he had to go into recovery mode, with the KTM riders proving tough opponents to overtake: ‘It was a matter of recovering and trying to get ahead of KTMs, which are very difficult to overtake. They brake very deep and they accelerate very strongly. So it’s really tricky to overtake them, and I lost a lot of time behind Jack [Miller]. But then I was able to catch up to Brad [Binder], I had a good fight with Jack, and a good fight with Brad as well’.

The #21 was pleased with his performance and the result, as he stated: ‘It was a fighting race, and we were able to get P5 – which is another strong finish to a race and a weekend. We are definitely strong, we are working to get up there, but we are already very strong’.