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This year, the questions asked by fans on the social networks have become a fun interlude in the press conferences. After his 3rd place in qualifying at Austin, Valentino was asked what kind of pizza his rivals would be.
The Doctor played along: “Marquez would be a ‘diavola’ with spicy pepperoni. For Viñales I’d say mushrooms and sausage because I always eat that. Crutchlow is definitely a pizza with chips and pineapple. And Lorenzo? One with hot pepper, a lot of hot pepper”. And himself? “I’ll say sausage and mushrooms again, I’ll stay traditional.”
Once the skit was over, Valentino got serious again and commented on his qualifiers.
“They were important because they were the first of the season in dry conditions and it was important to assess my potential - he explained – It went well. I felt good in the saddle and I earned an important front row. I knew I could do a good lap if I could find some open track. It wasn’t simple because with not much time available we could not implement strategy, but I was lucky.”
In traffic he also had a little misunderstanding with Maverick.
“To be honest, I am not sure what happened. I haven’t had time to look at the reply - he recounted- When I saw that Viñales was angry I wondered what I had done. We did not touch, but in that sector there are a lot of riders that slow down to wait for a tow and I hadn’t seen Maverick”.
Everything was resolved with a handshake between the two in the parc fermé, but his teammate remains in Valentino’s thoughts.
“In the race, I’ll try to stay with him and Marquez, but I’ll also need to watch my back because Pedrosa and Zarco have a good pace - he analyses - I still have work to do to sort the last details, but in qualifying I felt good and I improved braking. In the first rounds, I was faster in the race than in practice, but right now they have a better pace.”
Many have a careful eye on the first corner.
“The best thing is to start well and avoid getting caught up in traffic, but even if you think about it, something different always happens. I’ll have to decide in the moment.”
The hope is that the conditions will not be similar to Saturday morning.
“The tyres did not come up to temperature and it was scary riding in those conditions - he said – To be honest, I did not expect 6 or 7 degrees less to have such a big effect on the tyres. The biggest problem was the cold wind.”
The curious thing is that, of the many crashes in FP3, none involved a Yamaha rider.
“That means that I ride the bike right - he joked - However, the conditions in the morning were really particular.”
Speaking of tyres, Rossi and all the other riders will be able to try the 2016 front tyres at Jerez.
“It has been since I tried the new tyre the first time that I have certain sensations. Maybe I’m wrong, but it will be interesting to do a test - he commented - They said that it is Valentino’s tyre, but in truth, I think it is better for everyone.”
The final comments were for the proposal to decide access to Q2 only in FP3.
“Today it would have been stupid, because we would have had to risk in very difficult conditions. There are pros and cons, but yesterday we didn’t talk about it in Safety Commission.”
