Franky says relax

LISTENING TO FRANCO Morbidelli (Petronas SRT Yamaha) can be a soothing tonic to the chaos around us. Amid rising Covid-19 numbers across Spain, the Teruel Province prepared for a fresh lockdown the day after this weekend’s running. A reason for mild panic in some respects. Yet it was the half Italian-half Brazilian who instilled a sense of calm on track and breathed fresh life into his championship hopes.

This wasn’t calm of the most watchable kind. The first four turns aside, Morbidelli led this race in its entirety, finding a zone of concentration so intense he likened it to the experiences of Formula 1 icon Ayrton Senna. As colourful as he made it sound (the 24-year old revealed he “had dynamite for breakfast” and likened the race to “a trip”), this