Yamaha Factory racer and superstar Valentino Rossi admits that his chances for a MotoGP Championship win have already been closed after crashing in the Catalan Grand Prix. The 9-time championship winner was second before the crash happened.
In the early phases of the race Valentino Rossi found himself second after Franco Morbidelli(SRT Petronas Yamaha) made a mistake at the first corner. His position would however not last for long as he crashed at Turn just two laps later.
Rossi was only 26 points away from the championship lead ahead of the Catalan Grand Prix, but the rider is now 50 points further from the championship lead as he got a second consecutive DNF and the third in the 2020 MotoGP Season.
“In order not to despair, we have to think that it was a good weekend anyway, that I rode well, that I enjoyed myself and I could play for the win,” Rossi reflected on the Catalan Grand Prix.
“We are following a very interesting road with the setting of the bike, so even if the championship is closed for me, there are great reasons to be fast from now to the end of the year.
“As long as the math doesn’t say it, it’s not over. But unfortunately, I have already made three zeroes and I fell twice in a row due to my mistakes. Then the bike broke down in the first race, so it’s difficult.
“But there are still many races and we will have to try to be fast, if I can ride like this, I can go fast on all sides.”
Rossi admitted that he made a mistake by not paying attention to the temperature on the left side of his front tyre as he went around Turn 2 and was instead focussed on reducing the gap to the Catalan MotoGP winner and Championship leader Fabio Quartararo.
“We start very, very smooth at the beginning, we had a good pace and I tried to ride very sweet on the front tyre and rear tyre, because I know, like everybody, at the end of the race we will suffer,” he added.
“But anyway, we had a very good pace and we stayed at front, but I don’t push too much there.
“Franco did a mistake at Turn 1, so from that moment I push because I don’t want to take too much disadvantage to Fabio.
“I wanted to try and stay close to him because I know especially Suzukis at the end are very strong.
“But I did a mistake. Looking at the data it’s a really, really similar to the lap before but with this temperature I need to pay more attention on the left.”
