Malaysian GP – Rossi (7th): "Understand the situation and try to improve, there’s only that to do"…

Valentino Rossi, like his teammate Maverick Viñales, continues to experience a difficult end to the season with his Yamaha’s chronic lack of grip in the wet… Starting fourth on the grid, the Doctor only manages to save the 9 points of a seventh place without much flavor and must now fight against Dani Pedrosa to keep his fourth place in the championship. MNC Statements and Analysis.

Valentino Rossi, Yamaha Movistar (4th in qualifying and 7th in race) : "We were a bit unlucky with the weather, because I think in the dry we could have been competitive. We wanted to have a good race because we just got off our podium at Phillip Island and it’s good to try to stay on top, but it rained ".

“Unfortunately today we weren’t strong enough with this bike in the wet. We had a lot of problems and I struggled for almost three quarters of the race. We have to understand the situation and try to improve. , there’s just that to do. We’ll see what happens in Valencia. It’s another important race on a difficult circuit, but we’ll see. We will try to be competitive ".

• Malaysian GP :
• Malaysian GP :
• Malaysian GP :

Site analysis : How far are they for Rossi this year … Fourth in the world championship before the final in Valencia, the Doctor is now under threat from Dani Pedrosa with a lead of only 12 points (197 to 185)…

Yet well qualified – in the dry – in, the nine-time world champion missed his start and immediately found himself in eleventh, stuck in traffic behind Jack Miller, Scott Redding, Alvaro Bautista, Bradley Smith and even Alex Rins (!) , while Johann Zarco raced in the lead in his 2016 M1, chased by the official Honda riders and the Ducati !

Admittedly, his teammate Maverick Viñales was even further (13th in the first round) and finished 9th, but that is little consolation: the Yamaha officials were never able to play at the forefront during the entire GP of Malaysia, despite the progress recorded on a wet track on Friday: "the situation has improved a little, but we are still less strong than last year in these conditions", explains the transalpine star who urges Yamaha to find solutions for 2018 , while recommending to Johann Zarco to !

In the championship, the official Yamaha team has already lost the constructor title in favor of Honda – titled before Valencia thanks to its 29 point lead – and now finds itself in third with two points behind Ducati. Even the team title, if it remains mathematically playable, will be "very difficult to achieve", admits the team director who admits not understanding why the performances were so different in the race compared to the FP2 tests, also contested on the wet.

"We have to understand the reasons", insists Massimo Meregalli: "the drivers were unable to warm up their tires before halfway through the race and that cost them many positions. When the feeling with the tires s ‘improved, the lap times followed, but unfortunately it was too late ".

Rossi only managed to go below the 2’15 mark in the 17th lap (out of 20!) With a time of 2’14.871, while Maverick Viñales remained in 2’15 throughout the race while the leading riders were running in 2’13…

"We need to know how the track conditions were different from Friday, because the bikes had similar settings during the race," continues the official Yamaha team director. "We will forget this weekend and after a week of break we will focus on the final in Valencia in 15 days. Our goal is to make a good comeback to end the season on a positive note"…

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