News 16 Oct 2017

Rossi's wet setting struggles result in disappointing DNF at Motegi

Italian ace relatively unscathed despite still recovering from leg injury.

Source: Supplied.

Multi-time world champion Valentino Rossi has continued to struggle to come to terms with his YZR-M1 in wet conditions, which has ultimately resulted in a crash and non-finish at Motegi’s grand prix on Sunday.

The Movistar Yamaha rider experienced a crash earlier in the weekend during the fourth free practice session, however despite enduring two falls throughout the weekend, he managed to come out of them relatively unscathed keeping in mind he’s still recovering from a broken leg.

Rossi said the final few rounds of the series are important for the development of the bike, which will play in the role of deciding on a direction for the 2018 season.

“Today was the end of a very difficult weekend,” said Rossi. “Because of the wet conditions I was not very competitive, I was struggling a lot with the wet setting of the bike. In the race I was trying to follow Aleix Espargaró and I was trying to stick with him, but unfortunately I crashed.

“Now we’ll try to do some good races and it will be important during the next weekends to give Yamaha as much information as possible to improve the bike and to decide on the direction for next year.”

The Italian ace sits fifth in the championship standings as the MotoGP World Championship heads to Phillip Island this weekend for the Australian Motorcycle Grand Prix.

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