Yamaha: all in the points
The Le Mans race ended with encouraging results for Yamaha, both for the official team and Pramac. For the first time this season, in fact, all the riders of the Japanese manufacturer reached the points zone, demonstrating the progress of the new project. While Quartararo and Rins had already achieved this milestone as teammates in Thailand, the ‘double’ in the top 15 of Razgatlioglu and Miller materialized for the first time in France.
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Still to be studied
A race finished with the Turkish rider once again ahead of Miller, respectively in 13th and 15th place. Beyond the progress made by Yamaha, for Razgatlioglu it was his absolute debut on the Le Mans track, concluded with a good result for the three-time Superbike world champion, but still insufficient to show much satisfaction: “Of course, it’s positive to finish in the points, but honestly I can’t be completely satisfied because of the final position and especially the gap from the leaders. I also made some mistakes during the race, so part of that gap is definitely my fault, but overall we still lack something compared to the others. At the same time, seeing the incredible work Fabio did throughout the weekend makes me understand two things very clearly: first, that I still have a lot to improve, and second, that the bike also has room for improvement because obviously with the right setup the potential is there. I will continue to carefully study the data and maybe in Barcelona we could also try to start from a setup more similar to Fabio’s to better understand if that direction could work for me as well. For the race, we chose soft tires both front and rear. The start was not bad and I felt quite good, but towards the end the front tire wore out a lot and it became harder to manage.”
The soft front tire mistake
Miller’s 15th place corresponds to the Australian’s first points finish of the season, still last in the Riders’ standings, but a correct choice at the start of the race could have potentially brought #43 higher: “I was hoping for something more. We decided to mount the soft front tire because we expected slightly lower temperatures. Already during the reconnaissance lap to the grid there was quite a strong wind and the radar suggested more cloudiness was coming, so we took a risk with the soft front. I knew it would be difficult in the group, but historically I have always managed the soft front well with my riding style. Unfortunately, about fifteen laps from the end I really started to struggle and in the end it was not the right choice. However, it was one of those decisions that could have worked even if conditions had changed slightly. It’s a shame because this weekend we were definitely closer to the others, but still not enough. We have to keep working and improving starting from here.”
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