MotoGP Brno Day 1: Valentino Rossi, “I believe I can be competitive”

GP Czech Republic MotoGP Yamaha MotoGP – Valentino Rossi experienced mixed fortunes on the first day of MotoGP testing in Brno, scene of the tenth stage of the 2017 MotoGP. In the morning session held in the rain he achieved the fifth fastest time, while in the afternoon session held in the dry he did not go any further the fourteenth chrono. The word is up to him.

Valentino, tell us about this first day of testing in Brno.

“The position doesn't reflect the potential, I'm only fourteenth, but both this morning and this afternoon I had a good feeling. This morning in the wet I was quite fast, while in the afternoon with the medium slicks I wasn't doing too badly, but unfortunately I had a problem with one of the bikes and I didn't have time to put the softs on at the end of the session. However, the pace isn't bad, even if we need to work on the setting, but I think I can be quite competitive. Let's hope that FP3 will be dry, because if it's wet I'll be forced to compete in Q1 and everything would be more difficult."

Rain is forecast for the race, could this cancel out Honda's advantage, which they tested here a few weeks ago?

“The forecast for Sunday is very bad and therefore this morning's performance is very important. At the moment the fastest seem to be Marquez, Pedrosa and Crutchow, who are the riders who did the test, but Folger also went fast even without putting on the soft tyre, so it confirms his good moment. Tomorrow I hope for a dry day, because we too can be fast.”

Today the new Ducati fairing debuted and Honda also brought new solutions, what do you think?

“A regulation has been made to try to remove the aerodynamic appendages, which may or may not be right, but it seems to me that even with this regulation little has been resolved, because in the end we all start making fairings with wings again. We have a fairing with wings and on some tracks it can help, however it seems that the engineers really like playing on these winged fairings.”

Unfortunately Angel Nieto has passed away, what are your memories?

“Unfortunately Angel left us, I always had a great relationship with him, because I am more or less the age of his children Angel and Gelete and I was often with him. In addition to winning 13 world titles, he was a great person outside too, I have good memories. At Le Mans when I reached him at 90 victories, on the lap of honor he got on my Yamaha M1 and rode it with me as a passenger. It would be nice to win for him on Sunday, but it won't be easy. Unfortunately, as happened with Nicky (Hayden, ed.), once again the road did not forgive. He was 70 years old, but looked at least 20 years younger, he was a cheerful guy and I was there for lunch a few weeks ago."