Morbidelli ‘would like to remain a gentleman’ as he avoids Ducati-Yamaha comparison

Franco Morbidelli crashed after early contact with Honda’s Joan Mir, but after remounting his GP24 machine, Morbidelli’s pace would have been strong enough to achieve a top ten finish.

Morbidelli endured a strong Friday, and despite crashes on Saturday and Sunday, the Pramac rider felt happy leaving the Portimao circuit.

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“We keep our learning curve with this bike and I can go home pretty satisfied,” said Morbidelli. “Results-wise not yet because in the race I made a mistake in the start.

“I made a bad start and was caught up in the group. I went wide and then I crashed.

“After that the results were gone, but the rhythm was very acceptable and very decent.

“Still I need to learn everything but some things we are realising are coming. We just need to keep going and speed it up.”

Still, Morbidelli is not 100% comfortable with the Ducati and one of the reasons for that is down to riding without freedom.

Morbidelli added: “What I'm missing the most on the bike is knowledge and freedom of doing things by reflex.

“I’m thinking too much about engaging the devices, the gear levers that are different to what I’m used to.

“I’m not focusing a lot on riding and maximising the riding. That’s what happens when you don’t have kilometres and we are lacking that.”

After missing pre-season testing, Morbidelli’s time aboard the Ducati has been very limited.

So when asked about his feeling compared to the Yamaha, the Italian was keen not to give any secrets away.

Morbidelli said: “I don’t want to make comparisons because that wouldn’t be fair to me, yes. I would like to remain a gentleman on this.

“What I can say is that I feel good. I feel very good with this bike and if you check out my rhythm in the race, not having any freedom riding, and having margin, the rhythm is still good.

“It’s still good enough to be six or seven. I was impressed with that.

“I’m impressed with the package and feel a lot of potential with the package.”