There is no official press conference on Friday, but most MotoGP riders usually hold a private conference in their home, half of which is held in English, the other half in their language.
Valentino Rossi having proven to be particularly competitive today, we were present there. In order to avoid any journalistic interpretation, we therefore offer you a “raw” translation of the entirety of the Italian pilot’s comments…
Valentino Rossi: “Finally, it's a good day for us because, this morning, we were more struggling and we had some problems, but this afternoon we changed the balance of the bike and we took a big step forward ahead. The modifications were good and I felt comfortable during the afternoon tests; I was pretty competitive from start to finish. But of course we still have a lot of work to do because here in Assen you need a very well balanced bike to brake well and take the corners, especially in the fast parts.
In the end I think more or less everyone took the soft tire because everyone is worried about the weather tomorrow to be able to stay in the Top 10. With the soft tire the bike works really well and I had a very good time. Unfortunately Iannone beat me by a few thousandths at the end, but regardless I was competitive. With the hard tire everything becomes a little more difficult and my pace is not so bad; I'm quite fast, quite consistent, but there are 4 or 5 very strong drivers so we have to work on that in particular, to try to improve the pace by a few tenths, to be faster.
We are waiting for tomorrow, hoping for good conditions and good weather.
Regarding the front tire, I'm pretty sure that the Michelin Medium is the best. For the rear, I want to work on the Hard, because my first impression with the Soft is that it is too soft for me. But the door remains open. Michelin is very confident in the soft, they asked me to try it, but it depends a lot on the track conditions, because this one improves a lot from start to finish, since you put rubber on the track . So we need to know if it will rain or not. Because if it doesn't rain overnight, the track will improve session after session, and then the soft tire may be an option. So in this case, it also remains open, compared to the tender.
In Barcelona we tried different chassis, but I wasn't completely sure about the improvements. So today, we compared them again, on another circuit, and ultimately, I prefer the standard chassis because I feel better with the front axle, I have better sensations, and I will use it from tomorrow, yes. There's not a big difference, it's just small modifications, but I prefer the normal chassis.
I can't explain much. We worked on Michelin. We won where we thought, but unfortunately we lost a little stability.
I 100% prefer it not to rain. Here in Assen, forecasts are always very difficult to make, but I really hope that the race will take place in the dry. But, you know... Currently, it's pretty bad for Sunday, and it's a real shame, because it looks like it's good for tomorrow, and if we had a normal Saturday, we would have had a dry race, but if it rains, we will try to be competitive in the wet as well. Of course, we'll have to try a little because we haven't done many kilometers with the Michelins in the wet. »
Comments collected by Thomas Morsellino
