One of the breakthrough performers of Saturday’s wet-weather qualifying for the French Grand Prix was Aprilia rider Lorenzo Savadori, with the Italian progressing from Q1 to Q2 and taking 11th on the grid for tomorrow’s race at Le Mans – a whopping eight places better than his previous best grid spot of 19th place at Portimao last year.
A golden opportunity missed for @lorysava32? 💢
Fortunately he doesn't have far to go after crashing at the last corner! 🏃♂️#FrenchGP 🇫🇷 pic.twitter.com/H7rjdH07vS
— MotoGP™🏁 (@MotoGP) May 15, 2021
Shrugging off an early-session crash that meant he had to sprint through the pitlane, Savadori timed his best lap to perfection and was eight tenths clear of his nearest rival, in a session where the likes of champion Joan Mir, his team-mate Alex Rins and championship leader Francesco Bagnaia were unable to advance to Q2.
Yet despite making the most of the rain and cold conditions that have led to calls from many of his rivals to have the race rescheduled in the future, Savadori admitted afterwards that he isn’t even a fan of wet weather conditions.
He instead reckons a career path through superbikes and production machinery rather than grand prix racing’s prototypes has left him far more capable of managing low grip surfaces.
“Honestly, I don’t like wet conditions a lot,” Savadori admitted when asked by The Race. “But these kind of conditions are more similar to the style of riding a superbike, because every time you ride a superbike you have a lot of movement from the bike.
“When I have this kind of movement, I can take more feeling from it. Right now I can’t take much confidence from this style of MotoGP bike, because it needs a completely different style.
“It’s more rigid and it needs more stability to have a good performance. Aprilia has helped me to work at it a lot and I need to say thanks for that, but I still need more time.”
Savadori’s superbike background contains three World Superbike seasons with Aprilia and an Italian Superbike title last year that led to him getting the MotoGP gig.
Arguably MotoGP’s most successful former production bike racer, Tech3 KTM’s Danilo Petrucci, says that his fellow Italian is right to say MotoGP bikes are closer to superbikes in the wet.
Petrucci admitted that not only does the rain suit his style – as evidenced by an impressive victory at Le Mans last October – but that the rain today helped them make something of a breakthrough on the RC16 after a difficult start to the year.
“You need to be more flowing, softer, with your riding style,” Petrucci said when asked by The Race. “You need to be more careful. The speed is less and you can understand the bike more.
“You have to just be really smooth and not aggressive like you do with a MotoGP bike. I’ve rode a MotoGP bike more than other bikes in my life, but I like riding in the rain because you can clearly understand what’s going on.
“It’s actually a good opportunity to understand your bike better – we learned in the wet that our limit was the last part of the braking areas because of this.
“It was a good opportunity for us and we know now where we need to work with the team to make a better-balanced bike for me.”
However, while he might be looking stronger than ever heading into tomorrow’s race, Savadori also admitted that he’s not sure yet what will happen as he still works to learn the nuances of grand prix racing in what will only be his eighth race in the premier class.
“I am incredibly happy with this qualifying, especially because it honours Aprilia’s hard work and the trust this team has always placed in me,” he added.
“But tomorrow, above all else, we need to be ready and reactive to the changing weather because managing the race will be fundamental.”
