Misano bumps: 'They made it worse!'

Grip better, bumps worse. That was the general feeling among MotoGP riders after day one of the San Marino Grand Prix at the resurfaced Misano, with some even likening parts of the circuit to being on a motocross track…

Jack Miller:

"It's bumpy. It's bad, especially in the fastest sector. But the biggest bonus is at least there's some grip out there, which we didn't have last year. But the fact that it's this bumpy and it's not even a year old this asphalt, I don't know what the f**k they did, but they made it worse in terms of bumps. That back section, the bike just starts shaking and bouncing, and one lap you can get through there semi OK, and the next lap you're just bouncing around."

Valentino Rossi:

"Misano is always a bit tricky. They did a very good job with the new asphalt, because it has very good grip and there are less bumps, but there are some bad ones in some places. There were more bumps with the previous asphalt, but they were smaller."

Fabio Quartararo:

"There's more grip than last year but the track is similar to motocross! A lot of bumps. Positive that there is more grip but we need to adapt because honestly the first exit in FP1 was really difficult to manage the bumps."

Maverick Vinales:

"Last year there were more [bumps] but we felt them less. Turn 3 is one area, braking in corner 8 also big ones and also in the fast corners it is moving a lot. In corners 9-10 it is better than last year. For me it is no problem. I get used to it. I think they made a good job with the grip of the track because it is very high."

Aleix Espargaro:

"Overall the tarmac is more grippy than past. But bumps are quite high. This tarmac is new. I expected it to be more flat. For me it’s even a bit worse than two months ago when I tested here. But overall the grip is good."

Cal Crutchlow:

"Bad. Really bad. The grip is a lot better but the bumps are really harsh, especially out of Turn 3 and down the back straight. Down the back straight the thing's shaking like mad."

Johann Zarco:
"The bumps are disturbing to find a consistency, because you cannot be too precise. You can do a few laps fast but if you get a bit tired, you get more disturbed by the bumps."

Danilo Petrucci:

"With the new asphalt, the track conditions have changed, and there is much more grip than last year. Unfortunately, there are several bumps and that have created some problems for us."

Bradley Smith:

"Honestly, I felt that it was better this weekend than [testing] in June. They are there of course, but I felt they were better than a couple of months ago. I don’t know if that's bike balance or if they've changed a couple of things or you just don't notice it as much as when you come from a long break.

"But in general we were able to change a couple of things with the front fork settings to iron them out. I wouldn't say there's more here than other places.

"You can definitely see where they are because I was watching Moto2 and a couple of guys crashed in Turn 14 and there's some nasty ones on the entry that you have to be careful of. But Curvone, Turn 11 I think, seemed to be better now and also there's a nasty one in 3 that seems to have settled down.

"So I'm not going to say it's a motocross track because it feels better than it did."

Pol Espargaro:

"The bumps are crazy big. The problem is that the track is super-grippy – which is really nice because they did a good job with the asphalt – and the compounds are super-sticky but with the small bumps, combined with the big grip, makes the bike shake a lot and react a lot. We knew that and we were much better here than at the test, we had a good set-up but I still missed the last corner because I was shaking too much."

Takaaki Nakagami:

"Because of the new surface there was more grip, but also more bumps on the track and we struggled when we hit the bumps and the bike was getting a little nervous."

Stefan Bradl:

"The circuit is quite bumpy, as we saw in the test. I think some other riders are finding it a bit difficult too, especially since the bumps are in a fast part of the track."