Rossi left ruing late-race mistake in Aragon
Movistar Yamaha’s Valentino Rossi ended the 23-lap Aragon Grand Prix on the podium in third after a late battle with teammate Jorge Lorenzo, but was left disappointed that an error on his part on the final two laps cost him a chance at second place.
The Italian qualified sixth and came into the race worried about the pace of his Yamaha, Rossi struggling to make his tyres go the distance during long runs in free practice.
At the start, Rossi made up two places and was right with the furious early battle for the lead. He was promoted to third when Marc Marquez made a mistake at Turn 7, and was soon in second after passing Lorenzo at Turn 1 on the sixth lap. Three laps later, Rossi was into the lead.
However, his time at the front was short-lived and he could do nothing to stop Marquez from scything his way past on lap 12. His focus now shifted to holding onto second from Lorenzo, but his fears of tyre degradation were soon realised and he began to suffer with a lot of spinning at the rear.
This allowed Lorenzo to close in and pass him with five laps to go, but the Italian wasn’t giving up the chase just yet. He’d managed to preserve his front tyre better than his teammate, and this gave him much better edge grip in the corners which kept him right with Lorenzo.
With tensions running high between the Yamaha pair after a hard battle at Misano two weeks ago, we were set for a titanic conclusion. But, with two laps to go, Rossi ran into Turn 12 too hot and had to sit the bike up in order to avoid a crash. This gave Lorenzo a comfortable three-second gap for the final lap which Rossi could do nothing about.
Though disappointed at missing out on second, Rossi conceded that Lorenzo was simply stronger than he was in the race and was still happy to make the rostrum at a track that he has found the going tough at in recent years. Just 14 points now separate Rossi (second) and Lorenzo (third) in the standings as we head towards the final four races of the season.
“We started with a different setting and we tried to be stronger towards the end of the race, but in the final stages I was spinning a lot, but I think everyone was in the same boat anyway. It‘s a shame that with two laps to go I made a mistake in braking and I had to go wide,” explained Rossi.
“If not for that we could have fought for the second place, but anyway the podium is OK. I‘m happy because it‘s a good podium. Here, in Aragón, we always suffer a bit. It‘s a shame and I‘m not fully happy, because I wanted to arrive as the first of the Yamahas and in front of Lorenzo, but unfortunately in the second half of the race he was faster than me. It‘s a shame, because I had some cards up my sleeve for the last laps, because I was there, but I made a mistake. I decided to go straight because else it would have been very dangerous for both of us. I lost the four points to Jorge, but it‘s another podium. We hope we can improve and that we can be more competitive for the overseas races.”