8th place for Pramac Racing at France

The French Grand Prix ended with a well-deserved eighth-place finish for substitute racer Michele Pirro. The Italian, who normally serves as the Ducati Test Team rider, gave the Ignite Pramac Racing Team its best result of the season so far. The race took place in challenging meteoric conditions, though that didn’t dissuade the enthusiastic crowd.

Michele Pirro, Ducati Team

Photo by: Ducati Corse

Rain had threatened the Le Mans circuit all morning, and it finally started falling about an hour before the MotoGP riders began lining up on the starting grid, prompting Race Direction to declare the race wet. The precipitation then stopped approximately twenty minutes after the start, and drying track surface caused the rain tyres to wear.

Although American Ben Spies missed the race, the team and Pirro was able to continue the setup work with his Desmosedici GP13 over the weekend. The team extends a warm thank-you to the Italian for his collaboration.

Michele Pirro – Ignite Pramac Racing Team
“I’m pleased with how the first half of the race went, as there wasn’t a big difference from the leaders, althogh we have to understand how to continue improving. I was riding well with the wet track, and after a while I began making up ground pretty well. I was starting to think about passing the group ahead of me, but then the track began drying and I started to lose traction. I tried to figure out how to improve, but in the end, given that the gap was growing, I just tried to manage my advantage over the riders behind me. We had some difficulties this morning, but in the afternoon we definitely went much better. I worked hard these few days to find a feeling with the bike, and I can say that I’m more comfortable with the one that I’m used to. We were able to collect data and taken an eighth-place finish, so I’m pretty satisfied. Thanks very much to the whole team for their hard work over these days, as this result is obviously down to them.”

Francesco Guidotti – Pramac Racing Team Manager
“Michele really had a nice race, taking a very good eighth place despite the difficult conditions. At about two-thirds race distance, the track began to dry, and then we started to suffer more from tyre wear than the others were. My compliments to Michele for giving us our best result so far. Now we look forward to Ben’s return for our home race.”

Pramac Racing Team