Cal Crutchlow comes for the first time as a World Champion at a press conference. Together with him are Dovizioso, Zarco, Viñales, Rins, and Miller.
The Grand Prix of the Americas starts with the opening press conference, where we meet the new world champion, winner of the Argentinian race, Cal Crutchlow, together with Andrea Dovizioso, Johann Zarco, Maverick Viñales, Alex Rins and Jack Miller.
Cal Crutchlow comes for the first time as the leading rider in the World Championship ranking, but he is very well aware that the Championship has just started: “The season started at its best, we have done a great job so far and we deserve this position. I’m thrilled to be the current World Champion, but there is a long way from here to Valencia. We need to take care of one race at a time. We did a good job during practices and in the first two races, so for now we just need to keep up the good results and we will see what we can do here in Austin. There is always a lot of planning, but you never know what will happen during the race itself. If you want to fight for something important, you need to stay first.”
Andrea Dovizioso speaks second, his position in the World Championship ranking too: “Ending up 6th when you are fighting for the World Champion title is certainly not the best result, but we need to see the bright side. We got some important points and we need to keep on working hard and maintaining the focus on the battles for the final victory. We are very competitive, and we think about a race at a time. Austin is a difficult track and I know I have always been struggling to obtain good results here. The weather seems unstable, so we will see how it goes tomorrow. Anyway, why shouldn’t we be thinking about a good result?”
Johann Zarco comes from a second place in the Argentinian race: “Stepping on the podium at my second race was great, I felt really close to victory. Now I’m 3rd in the general World Championship ranking and this is the best way to validate what we did in Qatar. I’m really positive about Austin, Marc is a great rider but why shouldn’t I be thinking about fighting with him for the win? I hope to be battling for the podium, now that I have a one-year experience in MotoGP I can better analyze the track. There are many turns, changes of direction and hard breaks, so we need to find the best set for the weekend. But I don’t want to have too high expectations. We will think about the podium, but the race will talk.”
Then is Maverick Viñales turn, who didn’t start his season the way he wished: “These two races helped us understand many things, especially regarding electronics. We need to improve the riding feeling. Austin is a track I personally enjoy, and I can’t wait to begin. But we still aren’t ready: I didn’t get a good feeling from the practices, but the situation improved in Qatar. We need to keep working on the feeling and we should try to do it faster.”
Alex Rins looks clearly satisfied thanks to his first podium in MotoGP, and he is very optimistic regarding this Grand Prix: “We are doing a great job, the bike is excellent, and we had an amazing weekend in Argentina that counterbalanced the fall in Qatar. We improved so much compared to last year and I have gained some experience, but we are also on the right track. I can’t wait to start, this is one of my favorite tracks and I got my first Moto3 win here. We need to do a perfect job from the beginning, to be in the top 10 during qualifying and do our best with race.”
Jack Miller didn’t step on the podium even though he started from the pole position in Argentina, but he doesn’t give up: “I’m partially disappointed but also a little satisfied by the Grand Prix at Termas de Rio Hondo. Generally speaking, it was a very positive weekend. We kept a good rhythm, but we had a troubled start because of bad track’s conditions. I also did some mistakes that made me lose the podium, but we learned a lot from that GP. We were also lucky as brave decisions do not always pay back, but we have seen high-quality performances and great competition, even among independent team riders.”