The Repsol rider analyses the venue of the next GP.
The straight is a difficult straight, it goes a bit upwards, as if you would reach the summit and then you go down, and go up to sixth gear to reach a speed of 320 to 330 km/h in average, which is not bad. Then you gear down to second for the first corner and do the first and second corner which is a right-left chicane in second gear, everything with soft gas. Then you enter a third-gear corner between the second and third corner which is called – at least I call it like that – the ‘curvone’. It’s a corner that goes deep and you usually have problems with the tyres because you skid a lot. You gear up on a kind of mini-straight and enter the next corner which is the Repsol corner, a second-gear corner, where you also skid a lot when you get out. Then comes a first-gear hairpin. You make the hairpin and come out on a descent; you gear up quickly to fourth – very strong acceleration – to brake for a complicated corner. You brake a bit inclined and then gear down two second for a very fast and difficult chicane where the front end always goes up.
Then you gear up to third going up straight for a third-gear blind corner. You come out of the corner usually without skidding too much but you get a lot of speed, gear up to fourth to enter the stadium with a decisive braking manoeuvre at the end of the races, also in second gear. Then there is a very difficult corner where the bike is always skidding, and where you have to be very careful with the throttle, without changing gear, to enter the corner where there is always the largest number of spectators, also in second. It’s a very, very round corner where you always have to look far because it seems as if it would never end.
After that there is a tiny piece of corner where you gear up to enter the two last corners of the circuit. They are very fast, number ten and eleven. They are really very important corners for the lap times, where it is always important to trust in the front tyre. And finally you reach the straight, skidding a lot and well, you start gearing up again for the main straight.
