Rossi laments ‘tough day’ on second outing in Thailand

Valentino Rossi has cited day two of the Thai MotoGP test at the Chang International Circuit as ‘tough’, as he slipped to 14th on the second day, languishing behind teammate Maverick Vinales and Tech 3’s Johann Zarco.

The Italian, who turned 39 on Friday, put in 65 laps on the second day, following a 74-lap day on the opening day. Having finished 8th yesterday, the Italian’s drop to 14th does not replicate the fact that he improved his time by three tenths from day one. It does however suggest that Rossi was not improving at the same rate as his rivals. Tito Rabat, Alvaro Bautista, Andrea Iannone, Jorge Lorenzo and Johann Zarco all managed to get ahead of Rossi on the second day, with just one day left.

“It was a tough day. We started quite well this morning, I did some good lap times, and after we had some work to do and some new things to try. Sincerely, I didn’t like it a lot,” said an honest Rossi.

“We tried some different things for the electronics and also the setting, but unfortunately we didn’t find an improvement. We also had to do a bit of work for Michelin. They wanted us to try some other rear tyres. We have to stay concentrated and follow a different way tomorrow,” he concluded.

Tomorrow is the last day of testing before the teams head to Qatar in early March for the final pre-season outing.