Pressure priority for Morbidelli, sets 'good target'

Franco Morbidelli's first priority for this weekend's Valencia MotoGP is to find a cure for the front tyre pressure issues that wrecked his chances at the same track last Sunday.

Winner of the previous Aragon round, Morbidelli held seventh in the early stages of the race, but drifted back to eleventh by the chequered flag (still top Yamaha).

"The biggest issue we had was with the pressure in the front tyre," Morbidelli said. "When we are running in the pack, we are noticing some problems with the pressure and we cannot fight how we want."

Petronas Yamaha team-mate Fabio Quartararo previously struggled with soaring tyre pressures when he slumped to 18th place at Aragon.

"We need to analyse and look at how to make [the tyres] work better for us, look at what is the right window for them and why we had the issue that we did," Morbidelli said.

The Italian came into last weekend's round 25-points from Joan Mir. Despite now slipping to 45 from the top, Morbidelli is now just eight points from second place in the standings, currently a tie between Quartararo and Alex Rins.

"Although the gap to the leader in the championship has widened, we have closed in on the second position," Morbidelli confirmed.

"I think this will be a good target for us in these final two races and it is something that I am going to be giving my all to achieve, for me and for the team.

"I will keep fighting for the best position possible in the championship until the end in Portugal."