San Marino GP – Rossi (7th): "I don’t understand"…
Yamaha suffered a crushing defeat at Misano, where its riders again lacked grip in the race after some promising tests … After having, the local star Valentino Rossi must be content with a distant 7th place without flavor in the GP of San Marino 2018. Debriefing.
Valentino Rossi, Yamaha-Movistar (7th in qualifying and 7th in race) : "It’s a shame, because yesterday was pretty good. Honestly, I expected to be quite competitive and to have a good race in front of my home crowd. Unfortunately, this morning I was lacking speed: it was is like I lacked grip ".
- MNC of September 9, 2018:
- MNC Live –
- MNC of September 8, 2018:
"I suffered a lot and I was really slower compared to yesterday, although the bike, the tires and the settings were exactly the same. Now we will try to analyze all this: this is a problem that sometimes happens at Yamaha and we have to understand why ".
- MNC file :
Site analysis : Transparent. The term is not too strong to describe the performance of the M1s at the 2018 San Marino GP: Maverick Viñales, first Yamaha rider to arrive (5th), was dominated the whole race by Rins, while Rossi and his "Back to Misano" helmet finished in 7th place, 19.786 sec from the winner…
A total disillusionment for the official team of the Iwata coat of arms, which nevertheless had a significant advantage: Rossi and Viñales – as well as the Ducati factory riders – took part in private tests on the Misano track in mid-August. , which allowed them to define a good working basis.
As for, it is in 10th place – some 27.559 sec! – that he finishes this 13th round of the season, after having made a small error in the first laps. "I don’t know what to do", admitted the Frenchman last night, who said he lacked grip despite all his attempts to curb the phenomenon.
Yet the weekend was promising for Yamaha:, Maverick Viñales returned to the front row for the first time since at Mugello. And if Valentino Rossi only qualified for 7th position, his time was only 0.078 sec behind that of his teammate (!) And only 0.112 sec behind Jack Miller, second on the grid behind Lorenzo.
Confident, Mack and the Doctor expected to play at the forefront and fight for the podium, failing to secure the victory on which Ducati had put a serious option. Alas, as too often, the behavior of the M1 has evolved in the wrong direction between Saturday and Sunday despite similar settings.
Powerless, the Yamaha riders could not keep up with the pace: Valentino Rossi’s fastest lap was 1’33.631, 0.953 sec behind the fastest race time set by Dovizioso. "I don’t understand: I was turning 6 to 7 tenths faster yesterday with worn tires", plague the transalpine star, who mentions the rise in temperature as a possible cause of their worries.
A moderately convincing reason as the mercury only climbed two degrees between qualifying on Saturday (25 ° C in the air and 39 ° C on the track) and the race on Sunday (27 ° C in the air and 41 ° C on the track). Admittedly, the slightest variation impacts performance in MotoGP, but not to this point: imagine the disaster with a difference of 10 ° C !
Especially since the conditions are the same for everyone. However, as Rossi bitterly notes: "the Ducati and Honda kept the same pace from one day to the next, while for Maverick and me – but also Johann – everything was more complicated on Sunday".
At home, Rossi loses a place in the championship…
For the nine-time world champion, the disappointment is particularly sharp insofar as Misano is the circuit on which he filed his first sliders … His fans, massed in numbers in bright yellow stands, impatiently awaited the blow. radiance they had been deprived of last year following Rossi’s package, broken leg during training !
Suffice to say that the disappointment was palpable at the arrival of the GP of San Marino 2018, when the local hero passed under the checkered flag in 7th position without ever having been able to play in front. Even the victory of Dovizioso – Italian rider on an Italian motorcycle – was not enough to console some tifosis !
It must be said that the n ° 46 recorded at home his worst performance of the 2018 season, without of course disregarding the fact that he finished 19th after being pushed to the mat by Marquez. This poor performance also cost him second place in the provisional, recovered by Dovizioso.
As for his teammate Viñales, his 5th place is not likely to satisfy him either: "as always, we have a worse feeling on Sunday", enraged the n ° 25 who finished in the wake of his old bike..
For Yamaha, the situation goes from worrying to worrying with already 22 races without a win. The crest of Iwata had not known such a long shortage since, before the recruitment of Valentino Rossi, precisely, made the M1 go from shade to light.
15 years later, the magic no longer operates: Rossi himself seems to be groping in the dark, without succeeding in identifying precisely the source of the problems. Add to that the doubts that seem to eat away at Viñales and now Zarco … and you have a builder in complete disarray.
Will he change the situation? Valentino Rossi, who insisted with Yamaha to obtain a "test team" in Europe, does not hide his impatience to have a fresh look on the M1: "I think it was important for Yamaha to secure the services of Jonas, because he can ride the bike like Maverick and me, "reckons the # 46.
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