It was raining in Misano on Friday when the first two free practice sessions for the GP del Made in Italy e dell’Emilia-Romagna MotoGP Grand Prix began. Jack Miller was the fastest driver, and with his FP2 lap of 1’41.305 he was the only one to be within the 1’41 ” mark, leaving Johann Zarco (Pramac / Ducati) 0.927s behind.
When asked whether the good performance in the rain had something to do with the motorcycle’s mechanical grip, the Australian Ducati rider replied: “I think so. In conversation with Andrea [Dovizioso]who has ridden the bike for many years and knows how it behaves and how it behaves in the wet and seeing how he struggles with the Yamaha in those conditions when he is generally one of the fastest in the rain I think , it’s mechanical grip. In wet conditions you have a lot of grip on the rear wheel. But it’s also the way the bike behaves. The whole setup helps.
Miller then said, “Me and Zarco were always very fast in the rain – Zarco on a Yamaha, me on a Honda. But for sure it’s definitely friendlier to have the bike we have and how it works. You get a lot more feedback on what the bike is doing in the rain. On days like today you don’t stress yourself; The bike gives you a lot of warning and reaction time. The same applies to the front end: with the carbon brakes you can react so quickly on the handlebars when it rains that you get a good feeling for how the bike is reacting, and you can react and avoid falls, which is very good. “