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MotoGP, Rossi: "For the podium I'll have to work through the night"

"I need to find a few tenths, we are close in terms of pace. I know I'm fast, but I don't have any idea what will happen in the final laps of the race"

MotoGP: Rossi: "For the podium I'll have to work through the night"

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If Valentino really had the DeLorean from Back to the Future, the film he honoured with his special helmet, who knows which date he would pick to go back to in order to change his past. Maybe even just the Misano qualifiers, to manage to do better than that seventh place that puts him on the third row of the starting grid for the race tomorrow.

I turned a good lap, but I still made a few mistakes here and there, especially on the last part of the track - the Doctor admitted - Anyway it is incredible the way we were all so close. Just think that to be 2nd I would only have need to be a tenth faster.

How much of an impact does the third row have on the race?
It certainly makes everything more complicated, especially thinking about the start and the first chicane.

Is it particularly complicated to overtake at Misano?
Not too much. It is a narrow track, but there are also a lot of demanding braking sections. It isn’t easy, but it isn’t hard either. Let’s say it’s medium difficulty. The point is that there are a lot of us with a good pace, very similar to one another.

Who has podium potential?
The two factory Ducatis are very strong, but I can say the same about Viñales and Márquez. Crutchlow and Miller aren’t far off either. Maybe Lorenzo is the one that has a bit more than the rest, plus he’ll start from pole position and maybe try to get away at the front.

Could you follow him?
First of all, you have to do a good start and then I am still lacking a couple of tenths to be able to battle for the podium.

Would they be enough to aim for the win too?
It’s hard to say although, as I said, we are all very close. The work in the garage tonight, from now until warm up, will be very important because now we have a lot of data to analyse and that lets us improve, in terms of setup and electronics, as well as in terms of my riding style. Already today I took a step forward. We managed to improve the braking phase changing the bike’s balance and sorting the electronics.

What is the strategy for tomorrow?
Right now, I know that I can be fast up to the 16th lap, but then there will still be more than ten left and we’ll have to see what happens (laughing). I expect a very hard race from a physical point of view as well because it will be very hot and Misano is a track that doesn’t let you catch your breath. We’ll see.”

Translated by Jonathan Blosser
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