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Rossi left looking ordinary |
Not for the first time this season, and just a day after revealing he's still discussing a switch to Bridgestone tyres for 2008, grip problems left Valentino Rossi looking relatively ordinary during Sunday's Australian Grand Prix.
Rossi was just two-seconds from world champion Casey Stoner when he passed Nicky Hayden for second place on lap 11 of 27 at Phillip Island, but went on to slip over ten seconds from the Australian's rear wheel by the finish - losing second to Stoner's Ducati team-mate Loris Capirossi in the process.
Afterwards, the Fiat Yamaha star again pointed to tyre performance - or more precisely endurance - as being the decisive factor in his downfall, but claimed he wasn't too disappointed from a personal perspective of having given his all.
"Honestly I'm not too disappointed today because I know I did everything I could have possibly done," he declared. "I started okay and in the opening laps I felt like I could go quite fast and have the chance to fight at the front. I passed Pedrosa and at that stage I was quite close to Hayden and Stoner, but then I made a small mistake coming onto the straight and lost a bit of time. I managed to pass Pedrosa again but then I wasn't able to close the gap to Stoner, even though I was riding at the maximum.
"In places I had fun and I made some good passes; at the end especially I was hoping for a great battle with Capirossi, like the old days, but by then the grip from my rear tyre was very poor and I had to slow down to make sure I would arrive to the end," he confirmed. "I am very happy that I was on the podium because this is a special place and it's always a big emotion to stand there with all the crowds in pit lane. Today with Casey I think it was a bit like for me in Mugello! Anyway, now we go straight to Malaysia, where our bike usually goes well, so once again we will do the maximum and try for the win."
"At the beginning of the race Valentino was keeping the same pace as the riders in front and we were all hoping for a battle until the last corner. Unfortunately it was not possible because after some laps the grip went down and we had to settle for finishing third. We had hoped for a better result today and it's a real pity because we all love this track; it's a magic place for us," added team director Davide Brivio. "It was not a disaster today because we were able to confirm Valentino's second place in the championship and we will keep on defending it in the last two races. Now we go to Sepang and we will be fighting for the win again."
"That was quite a tough race," confessed Jean-Philippe Weber, Michelin's director of motorcycle racing. "When we saw our top guys fighting near the front in the early stages we were quite optimistic but after mid-race the potential of our tyres went down for Valentino and Dani."
Nevertheless, Bridgestone's day wasn't faultless either - Honda Gresini's Marco Melandri having plummeted backwards from the podium fight after a rear tyre problem in the closing stages.
