Valentino Rossi: “It was a difficult Friday.”
Larry Lawrence | August 8, 2015
Photography by Larry Lawrence
MotoGP Championship leader Valentino Rossi was frank about his performance on Friday. “I was always slow, not fast enough, not strong enough, from the morning to the afternoon.”
Rossi was talking about his 10th-place position in Free Practice 2. One of the issues the seven-time MotoGP champion has been going through this season, in spite of being ranked number one mid-way through the season, is starting off the weekends slowly. He suffered the same fate at Indianapolis to kick off the return from summer break for the series, but you sensed no panic in his voice. Rossi seemed confident that his pace will improve as the weekend progresses. He talked of methodically going through the data and finding a solution, but first he explained his issues.
“In the morning already I had some problems (with the bike), but we don’t modify a lot, we wait for the afternoon,” Rossi explained. “Usually the first practice at this track, the track is quite dirty. We think that the situation can improve, but in reality no. This afternoon was also worse – I was quite slow. At the end I tried a new tire, but I didn’t have the right balance and the right setting and I suffered very much, especially on braking.
“Here you have a lot of braking on the edge and I don’t have the front feeling to stop the bike and I lose a lot of time. Also in the change of direction – this track has a lot of change of direction and I’m too slow. The bike feels heavy, lazy so I’m always in delay for the next corner. I’m not good.”
Rossi said the problem was compounded because some of his competition seem to be up to speed from the start.
“The situation is also worse because Marquez and especially Jorge (Lorenzo) are very strong,” Rossi said. “They are very, very fast, also to the end with the new tire. So we need to check the data and try to improve, because already tomorrow morning is an important practice. We have to stay in front for the qualifying in the afternoon; especially I have to make a step in the rhythm because I am quite slow.”
Larry Lawrence | Archives Editor
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