Rejuvenated Rossi on the rostrum in Le Mans

Valentino Rossi once again delivered the race-day goods, coming from a lowly 9th on the grid to mount the podium in Le Mans, France. The Italian forced his way through the field after an electrifying start, to claim his 229th podium in Grand Prix racing – an astonishing statistic.

Rossi’s Le Mans record shows a love-hate relationship, far from a fairytale French love affair. Rossi has won three times at Le Mans in the premier class, but has also retired out of good positions. In 2006, an engine issue eight laps from the end took him out of the race lead, whilst in 2009, he finished last for the first time ever – having been down pit lane multiple times, finishing two laps down. In 2017, he crashed in a last lap scrap with teammate Maverick Vinales, making it the latest sorry saga in Le Mans. However, Rossi, now rejuvenated and reinvigorated for the Italian GP, was back on the podium in 2018.

“Since Saturday, we’ve worked well. I was feeling quite pessimistic after qualifying, but we made two or three modifications to the balance of the bike that gave me more grip and also made me lose less in acceleration. Already in the morning warm up I was not so bad, so I thought “I can do a good race”, but starting from the third row is always difficult,” he began.

“You have to stay concentrated but I had a great start and right from the first lap I was able to overtake. I was in the right group. The other positive thing was that after that lap I was fast, I did good lap times and I had a good pace, this is very important. I hope that we can continue to work strongly, like we did today, to further improve the bike.”

Rossi was top Yamaha for the first time since round one at Losail, an astonishing statistic. If Valentino made it to the podium at Mugello, it’d be the first time since Argentina and America last season that he has achieved back-to-back podiums.