Valentino Rossi of Ducati Team third in initial practice day for Valencia Grand Prix – MotoGP news
Ducati Team rider Valentino Rossi hooked up at the third position in the first practice day held at the Ricardo Tormo Circuit in Valencia.
The MotoGP season finale will take place this weekend. The raceday will be followed by a two-day post-race test session for 1000cc machines.
The Italian veteran held off his teammate Nicky Hayden at the fourth place in the morning’s session. Rossi gave his best lap time of 1 minute and 45.828 seconds. He was 0.315 seconds slower than time chart leader Casey Stoner of Repsol Honda.
Rossi said, “Our bike works very well in the wet, so this morning I was able to push and to stay up there near the front. In the afternoon we had a few more problems because we made a mistake with the rear setting. I couldn’t manage to find grip under acceleration,
or to ride the bike well like in the morning.”
In the second practice session, he was seventh with a lap time of 1 minute and 49.613 seconds leaning five places apart from his teammate Hayden.
The track conditions got worse due to short interrupted downpour which went on for the whole day. The rubber laid from previous racing events affected by rain caused the track to get greasy and slippery.
The tarmac lost grip and the riders were left with ineffective effort for the whole day. The FP1 was slightly better with respect to afternoon’s FP2 session.
Though the temperatures climbed to 16 degrees Celsius but it was not enough for the riders to deliver their best performances.
Rossi added, “I should add that we’re a bit on the limit regarding the asphalt conditions, because it’s much worn and has terrible grip. The rain and the cold make it worse, and it’s very difficult to ride.”
The weather forecast for the second practice day and raceday is not favourable, but it is expected to be dry which could help in the race.
On the contrary, Rossi hopes to have a wet race day which will go well with his Desmosedici GP 11.1.
If the qualifying and raceday is conducted in dry conditions, the team will have to look for changes in setup.
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