Valentino Rossi was
firmly back in the MotoGP headlines at Jerez yesterday
as a wet and treacherous track allowed him to overcome
the deficiencies of his Ducati bike, as well as his
recovering shoulder, and power his way through the field
to second before a tumble in the tricky conditions put
him out of the fight at the front. Ducati factory team
mate Nicky Hayden also capitalised on the wet weather
conditions and scorched through to finish on the podium
of the Spanish Grand Prix.
Rossi, who also started
from the fourth row, mounted an extraordinary charge in
the race. Fast and determined, he advanced from twelfth
to second position in the space of just seven laps.
Unfortunately, he had a fall following an error in the
first turn of the eighth lap, involving the innocent
Casey Stoner (Honda) in the incident.
Rejoining the race in second-to-last place, with a big
gap to the next rider, Rossi didn’t give up and gave
everything he had, charging all the way to fifth place
at the finish. Race victory eventually went to Rossi's
2010 team mate at Yamaha, Jorge Lorenzo, the reigning
MotoGP World Champion taking honours on home soil with
another Spaniard, Honda's Dani Pedrosa, coming home
second.
Behind Lorenzo and
Stoner, Ducati's Hayden climbed onto the third step of
the podium at the conclusion of a race made so
treacherous by rain that in the end, only twelve riders
reached the finish line. The American rider, who started
from the fourth row, was also fast from the beginning,
immediately making up ground. He was involved in a
number of battles that saw him alternating between fifth
and third places for most of the race until he earned
Ducati’s first podium finish of the season.
Nicky Hayden (3rd)
“That wasn’t necessarily a pretty win because my last
laps were so slow when the tires were worn, but we’re on
the podium, and I’m pretty happy about it! In the
beginning, our bike was really good because I had a lot
of traction. After a while, it was all about focus, and
there was no room for error. The track was changing
every corner, because there was rain in some parts and
no rain in other parts. Also, the tyres and the lines
kept changing. It certainly hasn’t been an easy start to
the season, so we’ll take success any way we can get it.
Big thanks to the team.
"Hopefully we can try to
build on this, and it will be the little shot in the arm
to help get us going. I know Ducati’s not sleeping.
They’ve got some work to do, but I think our bike is
better than we’ve been showing. We’ve just been missing
a little bit, but I’m confident we can still recover and
have a good season.”
Valentino Rossi (5th)
“Today in the wet we had a great chance for me to make
my first podium with Ducati, or even to get my first
win. I felt good, both with the bike and my shoulder,
because I could brake where I wanted to rather than
where I’m forced to in the dry, since I still don’t have
the necessary strength. The bike is very fast in the
wet.
"I was advancing really
well, and I’m sorry to have made that mistake and thrown
away such an opportunity. While braking for the first
corner, I entered a bit long, and although I tried to
stay to the inside, I lost the front and couldn’t stay
up. I’m sorry, because I also took out Stoner, and I
certainly didn’t want to do that. I apologised to him,
and I’m truly sorry; it was a mistake. It’s a shame
because we really could have gotten some satisfaction,
but we’ll keep trying. We’re still not so fast in the
dry, but we’re working hard. Anyway today’s fifth place
gave us eleven points that are very important in the
championship.”
Vittoriano Guareschi (Team Manager)
“We’re very happy because we got our first podium of the
season with Nicky, and we saw Valentino riding really
well. It’s a shame about the crash because he would have
fought for the win, and obviously, we’re also very sorry
that Casey was involved. Vale was able to get going
again, and he had a great race. He didn’t give up, and
he managed an excellent fifth place. Nicky was very good
at handling a difficult situation over the last ten laps
when the tyres were finished and it would have been easy
to throw it all away. The team worked very well. We
found a good setup for the wet during the warm-up, and
we had an excellent team result.”
