Salvaging something after getting shoved at Silverstone 😤
Hi everyone,
That's definitely not how I wanted the weekend to end up here at Silverstone, and to leave here with a seventh in the Sprint and eighth in the Grand Prix … it's less than you'd hope for, obviously. But even before I had the incident with (Aprilia's) Maverick (Vinales) on Sunday, I knew it was going to be a tough one.
I made another good start – the KTM is awesome for that! – and went out in front off the get-go but straight away I felt I was struggling for grip. I thought maybe the track was more slippery because it had been pissing down rain on Saturday, but once (Ducati's) Pecco (Bagnaia) came past me I realised I was suffering for grip and just couldn't get it working from the start. It was everywhere too – entry, exit, mid-corner – I just wasn't able to force the bike, especially on the right-hand side of the tyre, so I was just trying to consolidate my position on lap three when Maverick pushed me off. I was suffering before that anyway, but …
Look, at the end of the day it's just racing, and what goes around comes around with these things. Definitely ambitious from him, but there's not too much more to say about it. Mav came up to me after and apologised, I accepted his apology, and that's the end of it. I don't think he intended to send me out that far, and I kind of got unlucky because there's about a metre of grass between the two asphalts there that outlines the track, and I was definitely a bit cautious going through the grass and kept it nice and straight because I knew it would be pretty wet with how much it has bucketed down all weekend.
By the time I came back on the track I was way back and needed something to come my way, and I kind of got that when the rain started coming and I could use that to move forward. I caught the group in front, a couple of the boys pitted to do bike swaps and a couple more crashed, and I was able to make a pass or two and get back to eighth. So, that was nice at least, but not what I signed up for.
Silverstone's always an enjoyable track, and coming back here after a long break – it's probably one of the better ones on the calendar with the old-school aspects to it. You can never get the perfect set-up around here because you've got the hard braking zones, the fast and flowing corners … it's a compromise. But it's a challenge too, which is what we like. Qualy went well and I felt good in the full wet, second was equal with Jerez for the best I've done since I've been here at KTM. We still have some work to do in those half-half not quite wet or dry conditions, because I've not done too much of that since I've been here. There's still a lot to learn here, but we definitely have a good base to work off.
It was good to be back on the bike, don't get me wrong, but I had an awesome five- week break back at home. It was bloody busy, back at home working for a two-and- a-half weeks – it made me appreciate being a MotoGP rider! – and it was a lot of fun with building the motocross track at home we've been planning for ages. It's amazing, better than I could have ever imagined … it'll be cool when I can share the video of it with you guys, which we'll definitely be doing soon.
Anyway, we'll work on what we learned this weekend and come back swinging next time in Austria. (KTM teammate) Brad (Binder) was up on the podium today so we have some pace … Austria being a home race for the team too means we'll be keen to get back into it.
Cheers, Jack
