MotoGP: Rossi delivers heroic comeback, still hoping for British GP improvements

Valentino Rossi may have qualified 14th but the wily old fox – or goat, depending who you are – was able to pull of a miraculous top six finish that didn’t seem anywhere near possible on Friday. The Italian, who was only 7th at the Red Bull Ring last season, picked his way up the order and in the final few laps, was quicker than the Pramac Ducati of Danilo Petrucci.

Rossi’s lap times in the latter stages of the race were good, lapping in the low 1.25s and closing in on the riders directly ahead of him. On the final lap, only Dani Pedrosa lapped quicker than Rossi and on the penultimate lap, Rossi was just a tenth off Dovizioso’s podium pace.

“I was able to enjoy the race, because I could recover a lot of positions and do some good overtaking, and nobody overtook me. This morning we tried something different that I liked. Unfortunately, I wasn’t faster, but I was able to keep my pace more consistent and use the rear tyre less. I started well, but I was in the rider pack,” said The Doctor, still chasing his first win of the season.

Valentino Rossi  has not won since Assen in 2017, which is also Yamaha’s last win to date.

“I had some hard battles at the beginning, but after I could recover. If I could have taken part in Q2 and started a little more towards the front, maybe then I could have fought with Petrucci, but from Crutchlow on there was no way because they were faster than us. We’ll try to improve for the next race.”

The 39-year-old Italian now heads to Silverstone, a circuit where he’s been on the podium at every single year since 2014, whilst he was the winner of a soaking wet race at the circuit in 2015, on his way to 2nd in the championship.