Frustrating Fifth at San Marino 😮‍💨

Hi everyone, 

Fifth for the second time in a week, some decent points here in Misano … but to be honest there's not a lot to be happy about after that. I got off to a decent start, had Fabio (Quartararo) behind me after a little fight on the first lap and I sat about a second behind my teammate Pecco (Bagnaia) for the first seven laps, and then … it ended up as just one of those days. 

I ran wide on lap 8 and Fabio did too behind me, but by about lap 14 when he got past me I was already hanging on with the rear tyre. From then on my fight was with the guys behind me really, and I had Marc (Marquez) and (Joan) Mir all over me in the last few laps. I started the last lap fourth, both of them came past so I finished sixth, then Mir had to drop a position for track limits so there I was in fifth again. My final lap was half a second slower than anything I did all race, I didn't have a lot of edge grip there by the end. 

Pecco chose the hard front/soft rear tyres like I did and he won the race, so I don't think it was the combination or the choice of tyres for me that was the problem. Massive congratulations to Pecco, he did a good job for sure. I was struggling with some vibrations from the middle of the race and that was pretty much it, really. I was comfortable and confident in the beginning but after I had that bit of a moment, it was a struggle. This track is particularly hard on the left side of the tyre, so I've said my piece about the tyre and we'll have to analyse it, find the issue and get on top of it. 

I've always qualified well here but one way or another, I’ve never really finished that great. It was the third time I'd been P2 here on Saturday and the other two times I didn't even score a point – I fell off and then finished outside the points three years ago and last year we had that bizarre thing when the tear-off from Fabio ended up in my air box and I had to pull in to retire. Speed has never been the issue here, I've been really fast at this place in the past but haven't been able to bring it home. Jerez had been like that for me as well before this year, and we turned things around there … but it wasn't to be for me today. 

We're at that time of the year now when you look more at the championship standings to see what's possible, and for us the teams' championship is within reach, for sure. We're creeping closer and closer to the factory Yamaha boys. Last year we helped Ducati get the constructors' title and that was fantastic, so get the teams' one this time would be massive for us. 

For me, seventh is the best I've done over a season before now so I'd love to get myself on the rostrum, inside the top three, and I reckon that's possible. I'm only a point off (Johann) Zarco in fourth now and 27 behind Mir in third, so there's a bit of work to do with four races to go, but it's achievable so I need to keep chipping away at it. It's definitely not out of the question for Pecco to win the whole thing too, so I'm happy to help out with whichever way I can. If I can see an opportunity to try and help Pecco, I'll definitely try and do that. 

It feels like we’re going to be here at Misano forever because we have a two-day test here this week, and then we're back here for another race in late October after we go to America for the next one. It seems like so long since we last went to Austin because it is – it's been two-and-a-half years! I was on the podium there last time in 2019, my first dry podium, so it's been a while. A lot has changed since then, that's for sure. It'll definitely be good to get back to Texas because it's a track that I like. 

Cheers, Jack