Ducati Team rider Valentino Rossi finishes ninth at German Grand Prix – MotoGP news
Ducati Team rider Valentino Rossi came ninth in the eni Motorrad Grand Prix Deutschland held at Sachsenring, Germany.
The race weekend was tough for Rossi on his new GP11.1.
The Italian was placed 16th to start the race due to a bad race package he had during the practice sessions, but some changes in the warm up session brought some relief.
Rossi said, “Today went a little better. This morning in the warm-up we made a change to the setup that helped me to slightly improve the feeling compared to the very, very difficult practice sessions.”
The Italian rider faced a tough race weekend in search for a better race setup on his GP11.1. Rossi’s teammate Nicky Hayden came eighth at Sachsenring. Both Ducati riders spent the majority of the race as a duel for positions. The German heat proved tough
for Rossi, Hayden and Bautista, who raced on each other’s toes to snatch the lead.
Rossi added, “After the opening laps, I realized that my pace was the same as that of Nicky and Bautista’s group, maybe even a little faster, but I had small glitches with the gearbox in the second half of the race. It was mainly hurting me in the last corner,
when I changed to third, because the bike wheelied and it took me half the straightaway before I could put it back down.”
In the final lap, Rossi was finding a loop to pass his teammate Nicky Hayden as he had held Alvaro Bautista for a while. Rossi decided to make a move under braking on the first corner but it all went in vain.
Meanwhile as Rossi’s attempt failed, Bautista galloped his GSVR to overtake the Ducati duo. The Spaniard left the Italian way behind.
Still the hopes in the Ducati garage are high for the next event taking place at the Laguna Seca in the US. A small improvement in GP11.1 is a good sign for Rossi and he would want to improve it further.
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