The third round of the
MotoGP World Championship, at the Estoril circuit
yesterday, saw Valentino Rossi put in a steady race on a
dry track, as there was no rain after the morning’s wet
warm-up. The Italian started well from the third row and
made up more positions on the first lap, bringing him to
fourth place. From there, he maintained a good rhythm
for the entire race, holding off Andrea Dovizioso until
the very end, when Dovizioso slipped by in the race to
the line and finished in front by a hair—just
twenty-five thousandths of a second.
Starting from the
fifth row, Nicky Hayden also had a very strong launch,
and the American was seventh after the first lap. A
small shifting problem affected him a little, but it was
mainly the contact with Spies that caused him to lose a
gap to Aoyama and Crutchlow. He was ninth at the finish.
Today the Ducati Team
will stay for a post-race test with the other MotoGP
teams, and naturally, good weather is hoped for so that
the team can continue its development of the GP11.
Valentino
Rossi (5th)
“Apart from Dovizioso, today
went well! I’m joking, but Andrea obviously rode a race
that was strategically perfect. I think he played with
me a little, knowing that on the straight, he could
probably beat me to the line. He couldn’t pass me
because I was strong on the brakes, so he had me do all
the work for 28 laps before making his attempt, and he
got me by twenty-five thousandths. Apart from that, the
team and I are very happy, because it was a nice race
and this, for the time being, is the best we can do. I
started well, I made up several positions, and then I
was very consistent, with decent times. I practically
did the same lap from qualifying for 28 laps, so it’s a
good result. My only disappointment is that fourth would
have been my best finish with the Ducati. Anyway,
another positive is that I’m physically well, as I’m
missing just fifteen percent of my strength, but I think
I’ll be at 100 percent between Le Mans and Catalunya. As
for the bike, there’s certainly still work to do, but
we’re working together with the Ducati technicians.
They’re pleased with the data they have, and I’m seeing
that what I get from the racing department works. It
will take some time, but we’re going forward. [Today]
we’ll have some new things to try, so let’s hope that
it’s dry, and we’ll see how it goes. We don’t expect to
solve everything in seven hours, just to continue down
the path we’ve started on together.”
Nicky Hayden
(9th)
“Starting from thirteenth, it
was always going to be difficult for us, but the bike
was good off the line and I got a good start. I made
some early mistakes, but I was also recovering a few
positions. I got into seventh, but I was having
difficulty back-shifting. Already on the sighting lap, I
knew it was an issue. On the grid, we talked about
getting on the other bike, but we decided together that
it was better to stick with our bike and not start from
pit road. It caused some difficulty, especially on
corner entry, and some guys came past. Then Spies hit me
pretty good and stood me up going into Turn 3, so I lost
the bridge to Aoyama and Crutchlow. I’m really happy we
have a test tomorrow. We’ve got some stuff to try, and
hopefully we’ll get some good weather, because we lost
some dry time this weekend with the rain. The bike was
great in the wet—third Friday and fourth this
morning—but we need to make it better in the dry.”
Vittoriano
Guareschi (Team Manager)
“Valentino had a good start
and a nice race: we were very consistent with the times,
and the gap to the front was reduced, which indicates
that the work we’re doing on the GP11 is going in the
right direction. Nicky also got away well when the
lights went off and, despite a shifting issue, he stayed
strong and finished in the top ten. Tomorrow will be a
test day, and we’ll try some updates to different areas
of the bike, so we hope that the weather won’t play any
dirty tricks on us so that we can take advantage of all
the track time.”
2011 MotoGP World
Championship standings (after 3 rounds):
1 Jorge Lorenzo (SPA) Yamaha Factory Racing 65
2 Dani Pedrosa (SPA) Repsol Honda Team 61
3 Casey Stoner (AUS) Repsol Honda Team 41
4 Valentino Rossi (ITA) Ducati Team 31
5 Nicky Hayden (USA) Ducati Team 30
6 Hiroshi Aoyama (JPN) San Carlo Honda Gresini 28
7 Andrea Dovizioso (ITA) Repsol Honda Team 26
8 Cal Crutchlow (GBR) Monster Yamaha Tech 3 21
9 Colin Edwards (USA) Monster Yamaha Tech 3 18
10 Hector Barbera (SPA) Aspar Team 14
11 Toni Elias (SPA) LCR Honda MotoGP 12
12 Karel Abraham (CZE) Cardion AB Motoracing 12
13 Marco Simoncelli (ITA) San Carlo Honda Gresini 11
