MotoGP: Rossi left dejected in Misano, hopes for Yamaha quick-fix

The Valentino Rossi dream of a win at Misano didn’t come true and in fact, quite the opposite happened as a result. It was his worst finish at Misano since 2011 when he was 7th on an uncompetitive Ducati. In 2018, he was 7th on an uncompetitive Yamaha and The Doctor is not happy.

Starting from 7th on the grid, he initially lost a place and was 8th for the opening few laps, until Jack Miller fell. Throughout the whole race, Valentino never once made a pass, leaving the capacity crowd to sit back and watch him finish in 7th. Teammate Maverick Vinales was slightly better, finishing 5th and beating Valentino Rossi for the first time since Assen and only the fourth time this season.

“It was a pity because I would have liked to have a good race here in Misano, in my home GP, in front of all my friends and fans. I expected to be faster in the race, because yesterday in FP4 we did a good session. But in the morning we had more problems with the bike, and even in the afternoon, despite the conditions being more or less the same as those of Saturday.

“The big problem is that at the moment we don’t understand why. We must be able to understand what happens to our bike in situations like this. I hope we can fix it very quickly, because I want to go back to doing good races.”

Rossi slipped to 3rd in the title race, 70 points behind Marc Marquez and three behind Andrea Dovizioso. Rossi has beaten Andrea Dovizioso at the forthcoming Aragon Grand Prix six times in comparison to Dovizioso’s one, so the stats are in Valentino’s favour. However Dovizioso’s recent form means he goes to Aragon with momentum and still with the determination to hunt down this championship.