Franco Morbidelli says he learned 'many things' from MotoGP's 'good guys' Jorge Lorenzo and Maverick Vinales in his debut premier class race in Qatar last weekend.
The reigning Moto2 World Champion has stepped up to MotoGP with the Marc VDS team this season, becoming the first member of Valentino Rossi's VR46 Riders Academy to do so.
Having qualified a strong 14th, Morbidelli took the chequered flag as the top rookie runner in 12th spot on his year-old Honda RC213V.
Following Lorenzo and Vinales in the early stages, Morbidelli was able gain valuable pointers, while also finding MotoGP to be more aggressive in the opening laps of a race than in the Moto2 class.
“Yeah, it was good. We made a good result in the end,” said Morbidelli.
“I started quite okay and I decided to stay a bit calm in the beginning, just to understand how the first laps in MotoGP work.
“Then, I started to get my rhythm, started to push a lot, and actually the pace was much better than what we were expecting. So I was positively surprised.
“[I learned] many, many things, from Lorenzo, Vinales, from the good guys, and also the first laps you have to be really aggressive, even more than in Moto2.
“So I will try to be a bit more aggressive in the first laps in the next races.”
Marc VDS team boss Michael Bartholemy says Morbidelli “exceeded” his expectations, and was also impressed with the Italian's team-mate and fellow rookie Tom Luthi, who just missed points after running off track at Turn 1 in the opening stages.
“This was a fantastic race by Franco, who finished in the points and just 16 seconds from the winner in his first MotoGP race,” beamed Bartholemy.
“He exceeded my expectations and was able to keep a good pace when grip levels went down late in the race.
“I was also impressed by Tom, who had a very consistent pace, although he lost some time when he ran wide at Turn 1 early in the race and he finished just one position out of the points."
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