Rossi feeling ‘comfortable’ upon return from injury
Valentino Rossi says he felt ‘comfortable’ on his Yamaha during Friday’s two free practice sessions for the Aragon MotoGP race as he made his comeback from a broken leg.
The Italian fractured the tibia and fibula in his right leg just 22 days ago in a training incident, but was back on track at Aragon on Friday despite doctors originally predicting a recovery time of 30-40 days.
Two damp sessions at the Spanish circuit complicated the Italian’s plans somewhat, though he still ventured out on circuit to assess his physical condition.
Completing eight laps in the first session, Rossi managed a further 13 in the afternoon and ended the day 20th overall on a 2m01.917s – 2.059 seconds from top spot.
“I’m quite happy because I feel comfortable on the bike,” Rossi said to crash.net.
“I was good already from this morning and also because the leg, after two practice sessions, is in a good condition, I don’t feel a lot of pain.
“On the wet, for sure, physically it’s a lot more easy, so it can help me to start the weekend.
“But on the other side it’s more dangerous, it’s easier to make a small mistake and make a crash. So I have always to ride with some margin.
“From some points of view it’s better (in the wet), but from other points it’s a bit worse because you have to always keep paying attention.”
Rossi completed 20 laps of Misano last Wednesday on a YZF-R1, but admits the dry running he did there was similar to riding his MotoGP bike in the wet.
For this reason he admits riding in the expected dry conditions on Saturday will prove to be even more of a challenge.
“For sure, in the dry, it’s a lot more demanding for the leg and also for the rest (of the body), because what I found in Misano is I have more effort on the arms, on the shoulder, because in braking I don’t have the power in the leg to brake the bike. So it’s more demanding.
“The other thing is that, in the dry, you have to move on the bike more from one side to the other, and also when you are full lean, you are a bit more outside the bike.
“And this I don’t understand very well with the R1, because the R1 is quite a normal bike, like with the M1 in the wet.
“But with the M1 in the dry you have to stay more outside the bike. So with this condition, no problem, but we have to wait until tomorrow for a dry condition.”