Valentino Rossi finished his first day of the French Grand Prix in the top 10. A performance which gives him a little smile after having languished so much in the second part of the ranking since the start of the season. He sees it as the result of the good work done during the test in Jerez, which makes him optimistic for the rest of the season. He nevertheless keeps his feet on the ground as a pilot. As boss, he also announced news that would scare Petronas, his current employer...
His first morning outing in the wet did not bode well for a Valentino Rossi ultimately distant 14th. But the dry conditions of the afternoon allowed him to move up the rankings, and even enter a top 10 which is so important for qualifying. An improvement that he believes owes to the solutions found during the Jerez test : " it was a good day. This morning I had a good feeling in the wet, but I needed to test in the dry to see if the work done in Jerez could also help us here at Le Mans. I pushed in FP2 and finally finished in the Top Ten, in ninth place ».
« I was consistent, with a good pace, strong braking, not bad. As I said, I am in the Top Ten and I am stronger than in the last races. The work done in Jerez helped us a lot. We had tried a different setting, a different balance of the bike, a different carbon swingarm. All this helped us when braking and cornering. Weather wise, I'm hoping for a dry or completely wet run, not halfway » said the Doctor.
He adds on the pitfalls spotted on the Bugatti: “ turn 3 is a very difficult point, it's a nightmare. First of all you come to a left turn after two right turns. Also on the straight with cold air the tire cools down a lot. It is a curve that can always hold surprises, especially because the asphalt is damaged because it is also used by cars ».
“It’s hard to stay motivated when things are going so badly”
Then Vale returns to the last four Grands Prix, to better express his relief after this Friday at Le Mans : " I'm really happy because the first races were very difficult. It's hard to stay motivated when things are going so badly, it's hard to be pessimistic and often we don't see the light at the end of the tunnel, it's not easy. I try to stay calm because I've been running for a long time, I try to remember sometimes where I won 11 races a year… And then my friends help me, they try not to let me give up. I felt a lot of support from everyone, both on my side of the box and from everyone who works at Petronas. It's not easy but you have to try not to give up. Here in MotoGP we go from top to bottom. Danilo Petrucci won last year and today he finished last, things change very quickly »
Rossi provides an update on the Aramco VR46 team
Valentino Rossi ends by taking stock of the future team VR46 supported by the Saudis and who is looking for his motorbikes… “ I think the future of the new team will be decided shortly, more or less at Mugello or shortly after. For the moment, the possibilities are 50% Ducati and 50% Yamaha, but it doesn't just depend on us. I'm not completely involved, other people decide besides me ». Razlan Razali will have insomnia...
MotoGP France Le Mans J1: times
Credit classification motogp.com
