Morbidelli’s Qatar GP was destroyed by a problem with the holeshot device

The 2020 championship runner-up was seen by many – including Ducati’s Jack Miller – as the favorite to win the season opener in Losail on Sunday.

But Morbidelli slipped from seventh place on the grid into the background on the first lap and was only able to finish 18th.

Morbidelli didn’t state what the problem was, but sources in the paddock told Motorsport.com that the Italian’s holeshot device got stuck throughout the race.

Introduced by Ducati in 2019, the Holeshot device mechanically lowers the rear of the bike to reduce roll off the line and improve acceleration at the start of the race.

The device has evolved since then, where most manufacturers can also drive it out of corners, while Aprilia, Honda, Yamaha, and KTM also have front holeshot devices for race starts.

Regarding the problem that appeared on the grid and was also observed during practice, Morbidelli said: “Difficult race for us, we had a problem with the grid and decided to race anyway.

“It’s a problem that we need to investigate better because it happened at other times over the weekend, but in the race we clearly saw that something was wrong and unfortunately we had to drive such a bad race.

“Well, basically the bike has stopped spinning and the rear of the bike feels empty, like I have no cushioning in the shock and I have an empty shock.

“I can’t turn … well, I can turn, but I have to slow down a second. I can accelerate, but I have to slow down a second.

“So this is the effect that I had. We don’t know the cause yet, I’m sure the Yamaha guys will help me with this. “

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Even though he knew he was going to have to drive with a problem – which made the safety of the race questionable with a broken holeshot – Morbidelli said he wanted to continue honoring his team’s hard work.

“Yes, of course I was pretty much the last, but still out of respect for my team and the people who work with me,” he added.

“I wanted to finish the race and I wanted to finish the race to start [understanding] better the problem. “

At the front, the factory Yamaha counterpart Maverick Vinales delivered a confident performance for victory.

But Morbidelli admits that this gives him no consolation for the Doha GP this weekend as his pace during the weekend in the evening sessions was not strong enough to repeat what Vinales did.

“Well, if the race is in daylight, yes,” he said. “If not, I really hope so. Hope is what I have. “