MotoGP, Rossi: I had no interest in 2nd place today

He lost the front end of his M1, it crashed into the asphalt and then tumbled into the gravel. “I realised that I had crashed when I was already on the ground. In the end, that is always the way it happens, otherwise we would all stay upright” Valentino tries to be ironic. He suffered no injuries, but his morale took a blow. The race in the overall standings against Marquez was next to impossible. Rossi tried but it did not go well.

“I gave 100% today because I had no interest in finishing second”, the Doctor sums up.

What happened?
“I was pushing hard. I did not want to let Marquez get away. My pace was not too different from his and, although it would not have been easy, I could have made a play for it with him down to the end.”

Instead, it went badly…
“It is a great pity after a good weekend and pole position to go home empty-handed. I had never had trouble on that corner, I don’t think I did anything strange and I had no warning. Even looking at the data, we did not notice anything strange, but evidently I went in too fast or I would not have fallen.”

You did not have the best start…
“Marquez and Lorenzo had overtaken me and then I lost a bit of time behind Jorge.”

Marquez said that in the initial stages, when overtaking, you seemed a bit nervous...
“He has good psychology skills to see that I was nervous. In truth, it seemed the opposite to me: he was rough on turn 3 when he overtook me.”

The battle was a brief one.
“Today I really felt good and I would have liked to make life difficult for him. I tried.”

Does he deserve the title?
“Yes, because Marquez was not only the most consistent rider, but he was also very fast and won many races.”

Any regrets?
“Yes, because I was fast on more or less all the tracks but, as I said, I made some mistakes and I started the season behind in training, to use a football term.”

Did the Yamaha not make progress?
“The M1 works very well, but during the year Honda improved a lot, whereas we stayed more or less at the same level.”

There are three races left. What is the goal?
“To do as much as possible. The runner-up spot is still there for me to battle out with Lorenzo. It is not as important as first place, but it gives me some motivation.”

In light of the problems with Michelin, could Phillip Island hold some problems?
“Michelin can improve. The Bridgestone front tyre was more stable. Maybe it is not by chance that both Lorenzo and I crashed. We were probably at the limit with the Yamaha.”

Jorge said that with the soft tyre on the front, things would have gone better…
“I would not have finished the race.”

If it is cold in Australia, what should we expect?
“It could be dangerous, but that’s the way it was with the Bridgestone too. I was told that it was 6°C today. At that temperature it would be better to compete on Playstation (he laughs).”