Mixed Fortunes For Yamaha In Race of Resolve
- Sep 14, 2015
- 3 min read
Valentino Rossi arrived at his home round having won the British Grand Prix and taking a twelve-point lead in the world standings. Having, like at Silverstone, not looked as strong as team-mate Jorge Lorenzo throughout practice Rossi would have been praying for the rain to arrive for the race.
Luckily for the Italian it did, and Lorenzo taking the lead at turn one was no longer the disaster it could have been had it remained dry. A tentative start for Rossi saw him drop off from Lorenzo and Honda's Marc Marquez on the opening lap, but was soon riding with the pair as the first round of stops approached.
Lorenzo held the advantage over his team-mate after the change to wet bikes, but Rossi took the lead from the Spaniard on lap seventeen as the track dried and the second round of stops approached. Thus began a game of who had the strongest resolve, of who would blink first. Rossi had waited to see what Lorenzo did at the first stop, and Lorenzo was doing the same now. Marquez was the first to throw in the towel and pitted with ten laps to go. The Yamaha duo circulate for another two laps before Lorenzo gave in, with Rossi coming in on the following tour.
Marquez had been circulating ten seconds faster than the M1s, and most of the others on dry rubber were demolishing the gap. So was this a pure misjudgement from the Italian or a clever tactic?
Had Rossi deliberately compromised his own result, a potential win, to compromise Lorenzo's race? Valentino only needs to finish ahead of Lorenzo to keep the Championship lead, and the lower down you finish the less points you gain. The other side of the coin suggests that he was trying to force Lorenzo into pushing too hard and crashing, or boxing too early and risking his race further. Either way, a simple misjudgement just doesn't make sense as to the reason why he pushed the wet tyres well beyond their limit - after all, this is a man who dominated at Silverstone in the wet.
Chance are that we'll never fully know what was going through Valentino's head, but he emerged victorious in that particular battle to go 23 points clear in the standings after Lorenzo crashed out on his out-lap at turn fifteen.
“It's true that the championship is a lot more important than winning this race, it's the main target. Unfortunately Jorge crashed and I was able to gain another eleven points. This is good for the championship, but it's a shame to miss out on the podium, because I wanted to arrive in the top three in front of all the spectators. It was a crazy race, and when you have to change bike, in this case twice, you need luck and rapid thinking to understand the situation. Fifth is still a good result and we're looking forward to the next race in Aragon. There are still five races left and unfortunately Lorenzo has the ability to win at every single one and Marquez is also always very strong, so there are still a lot of points left to fight for. Aragon is always a difficult track, but we did some tests there and my lap times weren't so bad, so we have to try to do a good race and arrive in the podium.”
Lorenzo stated: “Two races with bad luck in a row, because the circumstances were wet and abnormal. In Silverstone I didn't have the confidence and here I didn't have the pace to warm up the tyre well, so I entered the corner with slicks that were still cold and lost the rear. I think I've been unlucky this year in general, but especially these last two race, because I could have won both or finished 2nd, but that's racing. In previous years, my rivals in the championship crashed and this year it's me who's unlucky, but all is not lost. If I win all the coming races I can still become the World Champion and it wouldn't matter in what position Valentino would finish in.”
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