Raul Fꦑernandez cut a frustr🧔ated figure after the German MotoGP.

T𒀰he RNF Aprilia rider had finished in 15th place from 18th (out of 19 rides) on the grid, despite two retireme✨nts ahead of him.

“To be hoꦑnest, we have a big problem in the championship. 90% of the race is on Saturday morning. Because at the𒅌 end, you cannot overtake,” Fernandez said.

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“I overtook two or three riders on the first lap, but later, when I tried to overtake, you cannot stop the bike for the slipstream [dirty air]. I had to go wide, if not maybe I touch three or four ridꦅers. The problem is that.

“Now we are in a situation where everybody takes a lot of risk just to do𝕴 one fast lap [in qualifying]. Because the [race] pace doesn't matter, it doesn't matter how you manage the tyre. We have one ‘train’ [line of riders nose to tail] an🔜d you stay there.

“If you try to overtake, you take a lot of risk.”

The Spaniard insi🍃sted it wasn’t just a unique feature of the tight and twisty Sachsenring.

“In Argentina, it was the same. In Arge﷽ntina, I felt better pace than Zarco, but I tried three times to overtake him and I went wide, wide, w🌼ide. It's quite complicated now to do,” he said.

“The problem is very similar to Formula 1”

“The problem now is very similar to Formula 1,” Fernandez added. “You need clean air for the wings to work and push thꦛe bike down into the ground.

“I was in the race, and with the slipstrea♐m [dirty air] in Turn 11, I had wheelie even with banking [leaning]! I said ‘no, no, no’ and picked up the bike faster, because otherwise I will crash. It's amazing. And that is the problem.

“In Moto2, why don't they have any problems? Because they don't have any wings. Of course, you have the slipstream, you have to brake early, but at the end, the ty🔯re will have the same support [load] as always if you are following another rider or not.

“I♌n MotoGP, if you don't have clean air, you don't have the same [load] on the tyre🍨.

“Before coming to MotoGP, if I am honest, I was saying,🌊 ‘bah, it’s not like this’. But it's amazing.

“I never forget at Ara🥀gon in 2021, when Ma﷽rc Marquez was behind his brother and crashed in the last corner. Later, I said, ‘why did he crash?’ He explained that with the wings, he lost a lot of [load] on the front tyre [in the dirty air].

“I thought, ‘it’s not like t▨his’. But it's even more than he e♏xplained!”

“I don't want to blame MotoGP, but it's boring”

Factory Aprilia rider Aleix Espargar🐽o agreed that qualifying has become disproportionatelไy important, while the reliance on downforce combined with overheating of the front tyre is making races ‘boring’.

“Every𒐪body has a lot of downforce and MotoGP now, I don't want to blame MotoGP, but it's boring. It's everything ab𒉰out the qualifying,” Espargaro said.

“If you do a good qualifying, then you can do a good race because all the tyre pressures, all the fresh air you receive, mean🐼s the bike is another one [to ride].

“You can be a lot faster♌. It's a lot easier. If you are back in the grid, even if you have a really strong pace, it's very difficult. This frustra🗹tes us. It's just the qualifying now.”

Riders talking about ‘qualifying’ effectively mean having a good grid position and/or a strong start to be near the front earꦉly in a race.

So we've put together the following table comparing the top th✱ree positions at the end of lap 1 with the𓄧 final top three, during each of the 16 races so far this year.

As can be seen, only one rider has won a race without already being inside the top three at the end of lap 1: Marco Bezzecchi, at Le Man♑s (sixth on lap 🔯1).

On five occasio🐓ns, the ඣrider leading at the end of lap 1 went on to win the race...

*Following post-race penalty for Brad Binder.