Yamaha’s Valentino Rossi has cited this weekend’s French Grand Prix as ‘very important’, following a difficult Jerez race last time out for the nine-times world champion.
Rossi maintained his championship lead in Spain, but a lack of rear traction and the continuation of his front-end woes saw him wobble around to a lowly 10th at Jerez. With team-mate Maverick Vinales finishing several places up the road in sixth, the Italian’s lead was cut to a slender two points.
Several new components, including a new chassis, failed to deliver the kind of results hoped for by Rossi at the post-race test, but he was able to find a few ideas for set-up changes that can be made to improve his form in France.
“After the difficulties during the Jerez weekend, the Le Mans GP will be very important,” said Rossi.
“It is true that we are still first in the championship standings, and this is nice for us, but we need to improve the bike to be really competitive. The test at Jerez was important and we understood some positive things.”
The Italian has an outstanding record in France, with four wins to his credit, three of which coming in the premier class as well as a 250cc victory at Paul Ricard . On top of that, he has scored 10 other podium places.
Having made several sluggish starts to weekends in the early part of this season, which he feels cost him come race day, Rossi admits that he needs to hit the ground running at Le Mans from FP1
“Now we will have to work well from the first session in Le Mans and we have to try to be immediately competitive,” he added.
“We are feeling positive and we want to get back to working on the bike in the right way. I also hope the weather conditions will be good; we need to test the bike in dry conditions.”
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