Valentino Rossi and Yamaha break down at the 2020 Spanish Grand Prix…
Bad start for Valentino Rossi, victim of a mysterious technical problem on his Yamaha M1 for the first race of the 2020 season in Jerez … A weekend to forget for the dean of the MotoGP field who has never been in the rhythm during this Spanish Grand Prix. Debriefing.
Valentino Rossi, Yamaha Factory (11th in qualifying and retirement in the race) : "It was a difficult weekend because we suffered a lot from the high temperatures with the rear tire. We were not able to get the rear tire to work the right way. In the race I was not very fast and I did not have the rhythm of the group fighting for the podium ".
“After a few laps I had a problem with the rear tire and lost a lot of grip and performance. After that unfortunately I then had a problem with the bike: a red alarm went off. lit in the straight line, and I had to retire. This is a very strange situation especially since we are going to run here twice in a row … On the other hand, we can use our data to try to improve things".
- Spanish GP 2020 : Fabio Quartararo, new and immense French hope in MotoGP
- Spanish GP 2020 :
MNC analysis : What a contrast between Fabio Quartararo (21 years old), absolutely attacking on his Yamaha throughout the weekend and Valentino Rossi (41 years old), visually on the defensive with his factory M1. Handlebars that they will also exchange next year.
While the n ° 20 laid the foundations for his first MotoGP victory in free practice before signing a record pole in Jerez, the n ° 46 appeared in awkward position at a worrying 20th place in FP2 … Rossi – quite steep and not very mobile: see comparison above with Viñales in the same turn – will ultimately save 11th place in qualifying. But his defeated face on Saturday night betrayed all his worry…
In question: a crippling lack of motor skills, a recurring phenomenon at Yamaha. Except that Italian is – for now? – the only one to complain: neither Viñales (2nd Sunday), nor Morbidelli (5th) and even less Quartararo (1st!) have encountered such problems. "Mack" and Fabio even set the 2nd and 3rd best lap times in the race, respectively 0.073 sec and 0.177 sec behind Marc Marquez, who panicked the clock before falling during his ascent.
Tire selection for the
– Michelin Motorsport (@Michelin_Sport)
Certainly, like all the pilots on the field, all the "Yamaha boy’s" deplored the poor grip offered by the white-heated Andalusian track (53 ° C on Sunday!): This is the reason why the entire field is is slender with a soft rear tire, even if it means lacking consistency at the end of the event.
Rossi down … ideas to go fast
Faced with the failure of his lack of speed in Jerez, Valentino Rossi even tried the bet of the slick "Soft" at the front like his teammate Maverick Viñales. A daring choice, not particularly to Michelin’s taste, that they will be the only ones to try. Problem: if the Viñales piloting is sufficiently fluid to spare the soft compound, this is far from the case with Rossi’s.
The Spaniard negotiates the curves with a lot of speed and fluidity – like Fabio Quartararo moreover – while the Italian keeps a (in) two-stroke approach: trapper braking, then strong re-acceleration! The n ° 46 therefore quickly degraded its front tire (we see it very damaged when he puts his motorcycle on the wall of the edge of the track), while suffering from a lack of grip at the rear.
Add to that a technical problem that Yamaha is trying to find the origin of, and you have a very disappointing first race. Rossi didn’t score any points for this opening round, like Marquez, Crutchlow and Rins who got injured. Annoying insofar as the provisional calendar only counts thirteen rounds for the moment…
"Valentino had a difficult race and finally had to retire due to a technical problem: we are very disappointed", comments the director of the official team, without giving more details on this mysterious failure … "We have to work hard next week for better results, "predicts Massimo Meregalli. A nice euphemism !
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