Britain’s Scott Redding finished a distant last in today’s Jerez MotoGP after being unable to generate any grip all weekend and claiming the soft-compound rear Michelin he chose for today’s 27-lapper in Spain was ‘fucked’ at the chequered flag.
Redding crossed the line some 12 seconds behind Tito Rabat in 18th place and 1’05.555 behind winner Valentino Rossi. The Octo Pramac man said after qualifying yesterday that the soft rear, also chosen by Hector Barbera and both the Monster Yamaha riders, gave him huge wheelspin problems and his team didn’t manage to find a solution overnight.
The Gloucestershire man’s fastest race lap was a 1’42.187, set just before half distance, almost two seconds slower than he set in qualifying one yesterday but the track temperature was some 12° hotter today, according to organisers Dorna.
When asked to assess his rear, Redding said: “Fucked. There was no wrong choice, the tyre was falling apart. I probably shouldn’t say it but that is the truth and it cost me another race. The problem was I felt something wasn’t right and I didn’t want to keep pushing and have the same thing that happened in Argentina.
“When it’s happened once and you have the feeling it could happen again, it tells you something isn’t right. We checked the tyre and it has started to delaminate, blister, chunks have come out. We need to fix something or they need to fix something.”
Michelin have refuted Redding’s claims, saying the rear had some small tears but none bigger than a coin, the wear was consistent and no worse than Marc Marquez suffered in Austin, there were no safety concerns and that opting for the soft compound was down to the team.
“It didn’t work from the word go and got worse and worse,” Redding continued. “I was recovering spin on the electronics but not going forward. There was less grip out there, I struggled to turn the bike in anyway as there was no rear grip. Couldn’t stop the bike, couldn’t turn the bike and I couldn’t get out of the corners. We were in a lose/lose situation.
“I’m not just blaming the tyre but there was nothing I could, so we have to sit down with them and Ducati and see how we can move forward.”
