Rossi: Points situation “very bad” after Mugello retirement
Valentino Rossi says his situation in the MotoGP points standings looks "very bad” after he recorded his second retirement of the year with an engine failure at Mugello.
Valentino Rossi, Yamaha Factory Racing, Jorge Lorenzo, Yamaha Factory Racing
Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images
After taking pole position on home turf on Saturday, Rossi was locked in battle with Yamaha teammate Jorge Lorenzo during the early part of the race before he was ruled out of contention.
With Lorenzo going on to win the race, beating Marc Marquez by a hair’s breadth, it means Rossi now lags by 37 points in the title chase.
The Italian said that he felt he had the pace to beat Lorenzo in a straight fight before his engine wilted.
“It’s always a great shame when you have a technical failure in the race, but this race even more because I was very strong all weekend," Rossi told the media afterwards.
“For sure I could fight for victory. I was behind Lorenzo, but sincerely I think I had a little bit more pace compared to him, so for sure I could have attacked.
“But unfortunately the engine broke, I think it’s the same problem that happened to him in warm-up. We were a little bit worried, because usually [this kind of problem] doesn’t happen.”
He added: “It’s a great shame for the championship, because I scored zero and Lorenzo and Marquez arrived first and second.
“So now the distance to the top [of the standings] is 37 points, which is very bad, quite a big gap.”
First race failure since 2007
Having already suffered one DNF after crashing out of the third round of the season at Austin, Rossi now has one more non-score to his name than chief rivals Lorenzo and Marquez.
“Unfortunately I did a mistake in Austin, Lorenzo and Marquez also did a mistake in these six races, but this [retirement] is very heavy,” continued the 37-year-old.
“It hasn’t been since Misano 2007 that my bike broke in the race, nine years. I think there was something wrong with both engines, for me and Lorenzo.
“The difference is his [failed] in warm-up, and mine in the race. But this can happen. You can’t do anything but take the good things from the weekend and try next time.”
Additional reporting by Matteo Nugnes
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