Third in the opening Grand Prix in Qatar, behind his teammate Maverick Vinales and Andrea Dovizioso, Valentino then reached the second step of the podium twice in a row in Argentina and Texas. Spain saw his progress slowed down, but he nevertheless scored points for tenth place in Jerez.
It wasn't huge from an accounting point of view, but it allowed him to arrive at Le Mans with two points ahead of Vinales and four over Marquez, who each had one retirement due to a crash. Vale knew how to avoid this pitfall of haste and he hopes to increase his advantage over the two young Spanish stallions in the Sarthe.
Rossi has already achieved three premier class victories at Le Mans (2002, 2005 and 2008), six second places (2003, 2010, 2014, 2015 and 2016) and three third places (2000, 2001 and 2011).
According to Valentino Rossi, who are " After the difficulties of the Jerez weekend, the Le Mans GP will be very important. It's true that we are still first in the championship standings, and that's nice for us, but we need to improve the bike to be really competitive.
“The Jerez test was important and we understood some positive things. Now we will have to work well from the first session at Le Mans and we must try to be competitive immediately.
“We feel positive and we want to start working on the bike straight away. I also hope the weather conditions will be good, we have to test the bike in dry conditions. »
According to his team manager Massimo Meregalli, « We are back at Le Mans two weeks after coming here for a test, organized by Michelin, of the new asphalt. We were able to work on the setting which will probably be our base configuration for FP1 on Friday.
“Le Mans was a track that suited our bike well. We are fully committed to confirming this over the next weekend and this will help us become strong again after the Jerez race.
“It will be important that we are prepared for both dry and wet conditions, as Le Mans is a place where the weather plays a big role. We can’t wait to start the French GP weekend! »
Provisional ranking of the World Championship:
1 Valentino ROSSI-Yamaha 62 points
2 Maverick VIÑALES-Yamaha 60
3 Marc MARQUEZ-Honda 58
4 Dani PEDROSA-Honda 52
5 Andrea DOVIZIOSO-Ducati 41
6 Johann ZARCO-Yamaha 35
7 Cal CRUTCHLOW-Honda 29
8 Jonas FOLGER-Yamaha 29
9 Jorge LORENZO-Ducati 28
10 Danilo PETRUCCI-Ducati 26
11 Scott REDDING-Ducati 26
12 Jack MILLER-Honda 21
13 Aleix ESPARGARO-Aprilia 17
14 Alvaro BAUTISTA-Ducati 14
15 Loris BAZ-Ducati 12
16 Hector BARBERA-Ducati 12
17 Andrea IANNONE-Suzuki 9
18 Karel ABRAHAM-Ducati 9
19 Tito RABAT-Honda 8
20 Alex RINS-Suzuki 7
21 Bradley SMITH-KTM 3
22 Pol ESPARGARO-KTM 2
23 Sam LOWES-Aprilia 0
Photos © Yamaha
