Rossi Equal To Lorenzo In Barcelona - Catalan GP Analysis
- Jun 15, 2015
- 2 min read
Valentino Rossi may have qualified 7th compared to his Movistar Yamaha team-mate's 3rd and may have finished 2nd to Jorge Lorenzo in the race, but that doesn't do the Italian's true form any justice. In fact Rossi was able to run a similar, sometimes faster pace than the Spaniard and never strayed more than 3-tenths of a second away from Lorenzo's lap times. From laps 17-25 (the part of the race Rossi began to close the +2-second gap to Lorenzo) he lapped 8 of those faster than Lorenzo with the gap slashed to just 0.8s (Rossi haven taken 0.4s out of Lorenzo on the penultimate lap), thus suggesting that had the race been two laps longer Rossi would have been in a position to overtake Lorenzo.
“I hoped to catch Lorenzo, but it was difficult. Unfortunately starting form the third row I lost a lot even though I was strong in the first lap. After this I was always there. I am happy as I had a good pace, good setting; my speed is equal in the race today to Jorge that is a good target. After seven races we have a one point difference and a similar pace, so it will be interesting I think”
The limiting factor in Rossi's races at the moment is his obviously his qualifying. The Yamaha rider has never been the most exceptional of Saturday performers; since 2009 he has taken pole only twice! Rossi has improved a little in this area though. He was only 0.412s away from Lorenzo (top non-soft tyre shod bike) in Barcelona and missed out on a second row start by just a tenth of a second.
One other thing that halted Rossi's charge was Marc Marquez's crash on lap 3. The Honda had been right behind Lorenzo for those opening laps and was capable of passing the Yamaha. Marquez didn't have the pace to run consistently ahead of Lorenzo, but by that time the damage would have been done and Rossi would have joined the scrap.
Comments