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MotoGP, Rossi: a shame I couldn't fight

"I couldn't stop the bike. Lorenzo deserved the podium, I'm pleased for Iannone and his win"

Rossi: a shame I couldn't fight

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“I've made up 2 points to Marquez, if we had 100 Grand Prix still left to race, I'd be sorted.”, Valentino Rossi attempts to play down a race that didn't go to plan. The Ducatis were out of reach, but he's not pleased that he lost out on a podium to Lorenzo.

“I can't be happy, our aim was the podium - he admits - Even though there are positives, because I ran a good race and was just over 3 seconds from Iannone, bringing home points on a track that wasn't favourable”.

Could you not attack Lorenzo?
He was quicker than me, he deserved third place. Unfortunately, conditions were difficult, I couldn't brake or accelerate as I wanted and so couldn't fight with Jorge, it's a shame. I'm sorry to have missed out, but I was at least up there with the best guys”.

How come?
I didn't have the situation completely under control, and would have had to risk too much. When I tried to get close to Jorge I kept making mistakes. We made some modifications to the balance to try to preserve the tyres and I had problems in braking. I wasn't able to stop the bike and the brakes would overheat when I was in the slipstream behind another rider”.

But in testing you seemed a lot further from the Ducatis…
In reality I only worked on race pace and was already at the level I am today. There are risks in making a fast lap and it counts for nothing during testing, I'm too old for certain things (he laughs). Today's race wasn't so fast, but in the first part the Ducatis didn't really push”.

Iannone took a risk with his tyre choice, you didn't consider the soft solution?
I didn't know he'd made that choice. I was actually very uncertain about the front, the medium would probably have been the right choice”.

Are the Ducatis now at the level of the Yamaha and Honda?
It will be easy to find out, we just have to wait for Friday. They were really fast here and not just on the straight, they also managed to stress the tyres less”.

Are you happy for Iannone?
“Yes, because we have a good relationship and I have fun when I spend time with him, winning in MotoGP is important for a rider's career. I'm not sorry he won with the Ducati and I didn't, too much time has passed ”.

Translated by Heather Watson
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