Ducati rider Valentino Rossi finishes positive race weekend at Misano World Circuit – MotoGP news
Ducati Team rider Valentino Rossi claimed seventh place at his home event, San Marino GP.
The Italian rider fought well during the race and stood close to Marco Simoncelli, Andrea Dovizioso and Ben Spies.
Rossi said, “I’m pretty happy because we didn’t expect to do this well. I didn’t think I’d be able to stay with the second group, which is our goal at the moment, and instead we managed it for half the race. We still weren’t able to attack like we want to,
but anyway, we were right there.”
Rossi started the race from 11th position on the grid and jumped to sixth position in the race. While running through the initial three corners it was hard for Rossi to push because of rain. It was necessary for him to
gain the ground.
After his instant jump, he maintained his position and chased Simoncelli and Dovizioso while defending against Spies for a short while.
In the morning’s warm up session Rossi changed his front-end specs which helped him a lot to improve his race pace. He also added that the change could have helped in qualifying round if he had done it before.
Overall, the Italian rider termed it to be a one of his good race weekends in the 2011 season. Though it was a seventh place but enhancement in setup and a good show for home fans was motivating.
Meanwhile, Rossi fought through the race while his American teammate, Nicky Hayden crashed in the third lap at turn 15. The crash ended his day with no points.
Hayden said, “It was obviously a disappointing race. The team did a good job, as they made a couple of changes overnight, and this morning I was able to go a couple tenths faster than in qualifying, with a good rhythm. I thought we had a better chance for
the race.”
Hayden claimed that the rain was although good for Ducati riders but it cost him inversely. From the start off the Kentucky Kid was keen to move up some places in the race but the rain-affected tarmac made him lose the front end.
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