Austrian Grand Prix Red Bull Ring MotoGP J.1 Valentino Rossi: “We can do better in the dry but it will still be difficult”

This evening, it is still raining on the Red Bull Ring circuit in Austria. And this is what poses a problem for Valentino Rossi, since he is only in 11th position at the end of this first day in Austria... and the weather forecast (necessarily unreliable in mountainous areas) also predicts showers tomorrow.

Suffice it to say that moving into Q1 is a possible threat, an unusual situation for the Yamaha rider, who owes it to an FP2 in the wet and an FP1 disrupted by a broken crown on his number 1 M1.

With gaps of 1,054 seconds over Andrea Dovizioso in the dry and 2,332 seconds over Marc Marquez in the wet, the step ahead will be big and the Doctor is aware of it...

“It won't be easy to get into the top 10 tomorrow in FP3. At the moment we are only in eleventh position. This is the most difficult track on the calendar for our bike. We already felt it here in 2017, when we only reached 6th and 7th place. The gap with the top is large, both in the wet and in the dry. In the wet, I’m missing more than two seconds.”

An unusual gap in FP1, also partly explained by the breakage of his crown…

“The crown broke. Not surprising since you have to accelerate three times in first gear each lap. But it was my number one bike. The other bike was completely different. I didn't feel comfortable on it and that's why I'm not in the top 10. But I'm convinced that I have more potential. I think we can make up for something in FP3. I would have been faster with my number one bike.”

In FP2, Valentino Rossi drove until the end of the session…

“In fact, I only stayed to do initial tests (laughs). It was interesting to test the M1 in the wet as we haven't had the chance for a long time, and I'm doing well with the new bike, in terms of braking and entering corners. But in the wet, our electronics problem is more pronounced, as is the gap with the head. This afternoon I was two seconds late. We can do better in the dry but it will still be difficult.”

Progress will be possible, but the march remains high...

“We have some strong points with our bike, which we need to exploit. The braking zones are very important here. The Yamaha is not bad at braking. We are close to the Ducati and Honda there. But we still suffer a lot when we accelerate. But we have advantages with the speed of cornering. We can use it on tracks like Brno or Mugello. But here in Austria it is more difficult, because we have fewer curves like this. We need to improve in some areas, we are working on them, including braking. That's for sure. However, this seems difficult because the gaps are very large. The Ducati and Márquez will be difficult to beat here.”

The Yamaha leader is even starting to worry about his second place in the world rankings…

“The Ducati will give me a lot of problems. Ducati had a few accidents and some problems during the first half of the season. We only have one zero in Argentina, which puts me second in the World Championship. Apart from Argentina, in the first part of the season I was in the top five in every race and, although I didn't win, I scored several podiums. So far we have benefited from our regularity. I'm ahead of them because they had bad luck and made mistakes. It will be difficult to maintain my position against Dovi and Lorenzo. On Sunday it will be important to bring home points, I think it will be difficult to finish ahead of them. In Brno I was happy to have taken fourth place on the last lap.”

In the rain, Rossi fitted a sort of additional deflector in front of the rear tire...

“This helps against aquaplaning and, indeed, it is very slippery because a lot of water remains on the surface. The most dangerous point is braking for turn 4, where you brake by leaning the bike, but there is also a lot of aquaplaning throughout the straight. We tried a deflector in front of the rear wheel: it works, but it will be dangerous to race if it rains a lot.”