Valentino Rossi said that everything is difficult as he starts his true home MotoGP race at Misano from the third row of the grid.
‘The Doctor’ suffered an underwhelming qualifying session, as the best he could manage was seventh place, 0.399 seconds behind the lap record pace of Lorenzo. Whilst frustrated that he couldn’t challenge for the pole, Rossi was equally frustrated that he was less than a tenth from being on the front row.
Conscious of the potentially risks of starting from the third row with the opening sector extremely tight at Misano, Rossi said that he will have to work tomorrow.
“Starting from the third row, everything is difficult, especially at the first chicane,” said the nine-times World Champion.
“It’s true also all the guys in front have a good pace, so nobody that will make one lap and after is slow. But for sure starting from the third row will be not fantastic. We have to try to be strong from the start and especially in the first two laps.
“We have to work now, for tomorrow morning. For me, to fight for the podium I need two tenths. If we find them somewhere, we can try.”
Should Rossi or his Movistar Yamaha teammate Maverick Vinales fail to win tomorrow, it would make it 21 races since the last time a Yamaha rider stood on the top step of the podium. When asked about his chances, Rossi wasn’t optimistic.
“It’s difficult to say, we are all very close. Looks like the two Ducatis are very strong, but at the same time Maverick, Marquez are very strong. We have minimum five there, also Crutchlow and Miller are not so far behind. I hope we can fight close for everybody until the end,” he said.
