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MotoGP, Rossi: Lorenzo and Ducati will battle for the podium

"A nice battle to the end with Iannone. I liked it. Is this my best season? I had more fun when I won 11 races"

Rossi: Lorenzo and Ducati will battle for the podium

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The cake at Valencia was tasty for Valentino, but it lacked the cherry on top that would have been the podium. The main ingredient, the sweetest one, was the battle with Iannone that has by now become a MotoGP classic. If there is any doubt, just look at the numbers and count the passes between Andrea and Rossi: 14, a small record.

With Iannone it was a battle to the end, as always, but it was also nice. That’s the way it is with Andrea: you cross yourself and go - he jokes - We were both aggressive, but it was a clean fight; we never touched. I was faster than he was in the right-handers, so I played my hand.

But it was not enough…
I tried everything. At the beginning of the race I was faster, but I never managed to create a gap. In the finale he was better than I was, and so was Marquez.

Would finishing on the podium have been important?
I am not happy about not doing it, but at the same time, it does not change much. I finished fourth, but I rode a good race anyway.”

What was the biggest problem?
The front tyre - I don’t think it was the right one. I even thought about using the hard, but it did not have enough grip, whereas the soft one gave me more problems than I would have thought with high temperatures.”

Is that the reason for the difference between your performance and Lorenzo’s?
Party, but more than anything, Jorge rode better than I did on this track.

Yamaha showed once again that its weak point is in the race finale…
Here, just like what happened at Aragon, I expected the Honda to be stronger than us in the last laps. In recent races, however, the Ducati has also shown that it wears the tyres better than we do, especially stressing the front less. It is a bike that has a few weak points, but some strong points too.

Lorenzo did well…
Forgetting about Jorge and Ducati in the fight for the title next year would be stupid.

What atmosphere do you think he will find?
A lot has changed since I was there, but I was always comfortable with the people at Ducati. Unfortunately, we were unable to improve the bike and achieve good results, but I liked everything else. At Yamaha, the rider is always top priority; I think it is the same at Ducati too.

He is following in your steps…
As I said, on one hand, I had a difficult rapport with Jorge off the track, but on the other, we motivated one another. We always raised the bar. I wish him the best of luck and I hope he is able to be more competitive than I was.

Coming back to you, many say that this was your best season. Do you agree?
“I had more fun when I won 11 races a year (he laughs). But it is true that I was rather competitive in all conditions and I improved a lot in qualifying. I had more front rows than podiums and that is important. On the other hand, there were a few too many mistakes; the one in Assen could have been avoided and a bit of hard luck at Mugello. I would have liked to win more than two races and to have been closer to Marquez in the battle for the championship.

Marc said that he did not have the best bike. Do you agree?
At the end of the day, you have to look at the results and see how many riders won with Honda and how many with Yamaha, counting the wins for each side. Marquez deserved the title. He was good when others were in difficulty, but his bike improved a lot in the last part of the season.

Now it is time to think about 2017. Where can you improve more?
The team, the bike and I need to improve in flag-to-flag races, when there are mixed conditions. And then there is the same old story: you have to make fewer mistakes and go faster (he laughs).”

This was the last race for one of your mechanics, Gary Coleman…
He has worked in Grand Prix Motorcycle Racing for almost 40 years and with me for 16. I was quite young when I met him. It has been a great pleasure and honour to work with him. At the beginning of the season he had told me that it would be his last and I will definitely miss him.

Translated by Jonathan Blosser
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