Analysis – MotoGP Valencia GP – Rossi (5th): “The 2016 bike is much more manageable” –

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MotoGP Valencia GP – Rossi (5th): "The 2016 motorcycle is much more manageable"

Analysis - MotoGP Valencia GP - Rossi (5th): & quot; The 2016 bike is much more maneuverable & quot; -

Valentino Rossi, out of the race for the title since his fall in Japan, ends the MotoGP 2017 season with a distant fifth place at the Valencia GP signed on a Yamaha in 2016 configuration… A frustrating final for the nine-time world champion, dispossessed of 4th place overall by winner Dani Pedrosa. MNC Statements and Analysis.

Valentino Rossi, Yamaha Movistar (7th in qualifying, 5th in race and 5th in the championship) : "It’s more or less the race I expected … I tried not to let go, but we had difficulties with the tires and not enough grip to go faster. Saturday night, therefore, we had decided to change the chassis and come back to the 2016 one to try to understand ".

  • Valencia GP : 
  • Valencia GP : 
  • Valencia GP : 

“Originally, we had to make the comparison during the test (Tuesday and Wednesday, Editor’s note), but we said to ourselves why not try it on Sunday. Sometimes in the race, we understand more things than in ten days of test … This is what we did. Unfortunately it didn’t have the expected results, but I think we got some interesting things ".

Analysis - MotoGP Valencia GP - Rossi (5th): & quot; The 2016 bike is much more maneuverable & quot; -

“It was a risky decision and quite frankly it’s quite complicated to progress in one day. But I think we would have achieved a pretty similar result with the bike used on Saturday. The 2016 bike is much more manageable, but we we had concerns in terms of tire degradation. We do not yet know which model will be used as the basis for the 2018 season. This period promises to be important, because we absolutely must reduce this gap which separates us from our competitors before the start of the next season ".

  • Valencia GP –
  • Valencia GP – 
  • Valencia GP – 

Site analysis: With defeat and dark eyes, Valentino Rossi is eager to turn the page on this insipid 2017 season which ended in fifth place behind Dani Pedrosa, in extremis 4th thanks to his victory yesterday in Valencia. Since his time at Ducati (and), the Doctor had never finished so far in the MotoGP general classification… 

Analysis - MotoGP Valencia GP - Rossi (5th):

However, his 22nd (!) Grand Prix season had started in a very promising way with three successive podiums: third in, then second in and. Despite his 38 years on the clock, the nine-time world champion seemed able to seek this tenth title of which he dreams so much !

But things quickly got complicated, with a first disillusionment: Rossi finished slowly in 10th place for lack of traction on the track (41 ° C on the ground). His teammate Maverick Viñales, winner of the first two races, further limits the damage with a 6th place, but his gap of 25 seconds on the winner also shows obvious difficulties.

The next race, the, takes place in good weather conditions (like what, Le Mans!) And on a new asphalt track. The official Yamaha, traditionally at ease on the Bugatti, take the opportunity to take over the outposts and offer the first battle between Rossi and Viñales, the experience against the youth..

Analysis - MotoGP Valencia GP - Rossi (5th):

Ironically, the wisdom attributed to the experience is lacking in n ° 46: he stumbles a few meters from the finish while trying to resist Viñales who had just taken over the leadership! The Doctor, aware of having cracked at the worst moment, loses at this moment the reins of the championship and an opportunity for victory. He will rectify the situation a month later, winning the .

Problem: this success in the cathedral of Assen will be his one and only of the season … and the last of the Yamaha clan, since Viñales never climbed back on the top step of the podium after the GP of France, while the dazzling debutant Johann Zarco came a hair’s breadth away from materializing this weekend in Valencia ! 

This concretely means that victory has eluded Iwata’s crest since mid-season. The cause ? This concern for traction has become critical, which will definitively hamper the ambitions of the official team: clearly, the M1 2017 was developed in the wrong direction, as evidenced by the brilliant results signed by Tech3 on the 2016 model with Zarco but also Folger (on the dry behind Marquez).

"If Jorge had still been by our side, we would have ruled out the 2017 chassis"

Rarely has the situation been so critical for Yamaha, one of whose official riders had until now always occupied one of the first two places in the final classification since … At the time, Valentino Rossi saw a mess. eye Jorge Lorenzo making his debut on the M1, but it is clear that their collaboration has been much more fruitful from all points of view… 

Analysis - MotoGP Valencia GP - Rossi (5th):

"If Jorge had still been by our side last winter, I think he would have agreed with me and that we would have discarded the chassis developed by Yamaha", underlined Rossi who was immediately against the new frame during the first offseason tests.

"But Maverick was very comfortable and very fast with this chassis, so we kept it", regrets the Italian star. Except that at the time, Viñales was obsessively chasing the stopwatch to establish his new status as future leader at Yamaha. The (sur) natural talent of n ° 25 and his ambition somehow concealed the significant deterioration of the rear tire that the 2017 chassis caused over the laps…. 

This bad technical direction taken last winter has ruined the hopes of the Yamaha clan, and all the more surely that their competitors have constantly progressed: "we are treading water while Honda has moved forward, especially after their tests de Brno ", observed, helplessly, Valentino Rossi after the summer break.

Back to chassis 2016

In a final last stand, Rossi and Viñales got Yamaha to return to the 2016 configuration for the final yesterday in Valencia. This 2016 chassis, considered more manoeuvrable, however, did not allow them to solve all their problems: the Italian finished 5th behind the rookie Alex Rins, while the Spaniard sank to 12th position. Sad last race for Valentino Rossi in view of the immense treasures of courage deployed to return to the handlebars at, less than a month after his double broken leg !

  • MNC file – Injured motorcycle riders: Rossi, the example to follow ?

All the more frustrating as Johann Zarco for his part played the win with this same chassis and finished! One of the possible explanations is that the French beginner opted for soft tires at the front and rear, while the Yamaha officials started with a hard one at the front and a soft one at the rear….

Analysis - MotoGP Valencia GP - Rossi (5th):

Disappointed but not discouraged, Valentino Rossi sees real avenues for improvement thanks to this flashback: the Doctor much prefers the old chassis solution and explains that he just needs a little time to get used to it again. The n ° 46 will have two days of tests planned for this in Valence, Tuesday and Wednesday.

Let’s hope that the genius of the mountain pastures and his teammate will quickly find the right way forward: their possible revenge in 2018 is now conditioned by the quality of their orientation. Their decision will also weigh heavily on the success of the next season of Johann Zarco, to whom Yamaha will probably entrust a "hybrid" evolution from that defined by its official pilots. !

General classification of the MotoGP World Championship 2017

  1. Marc MARQUEZ Honda SPA (298 points)
  2. Andrea DOVIZIOSO Ducati ITA (261 points)
  3. Maverick VIÑALES Yamaha SPA (230 points)
  4. Dani PEDROSA Honda SPA (210 points)
  5. Valentino ROSSI Yamaha ITA (208 points)
  6. Johann ZARCO Yamaha FRA (174 points)
  7. Jorge LORENZO Ducati SPA (137 points)
  8. Danilo PETRUCCI Ducati ITA (124 points)
  9. Cal CRUTCHLOW Honda GBR (112 points)
  10. Jonas FOLGER Yamaha GER (84 points)
  11. Jack MILLER Honda AUS (82 points)
  12. Alvaro BAUTISTA Ducati SPA (75 points)
  13. Andrea IANNONE Suzuki ITA (70 points)
  14. Scott REDDING Ducati GBR (64 points)
  15. Aleix ESPARGARO Aprilia SPA (62 points)
  16. Alex RINS Suzuki SPA (59 points)
  17. Pol ESPARGARO KTM SPA (55 points)
  18. Loris BAZ Ducati FRA (45 points)
  19. Tito RABAT Honda SPA (35 points)
  20. Karel ABRAHAM Ducati CZE (32 points)
  21. Bradley SMITH KTM GBR (29 points)
  22. Hector BARBERA Ducati SPA (28 points)
  23. Michele PIRRO Ducati ITA (25 points)
  24. Mika KALLIO KTM FIN (11 points)
  25. Sam LOWES Aprilia GBR (5 points)
  26. Katsuyuki NAKASUGA Yamaha JPN (4 points)
  27. Sylvain GUINTOLI Suzuki FRA (1 point)
  28. Michael VAN DER MARK Yamaha NED
  29. Takuya TSUDA Suzuki JPN
  30. Hiroshi AOYAMA Honda JPN
  31. Broc PARKES Yamaha AUS

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