Mugello MotoGP: Valentino Rossi humbled on home soil

Valentino Rossi’s Ducati debut on Italian soil saw him suffer a crushing defeat in front of his adoring home fans at Mugello yesterday.

Riding the new GP11.1 for the second race, the updated Desmosedici has not been the magic wand cure to Rossi’s problems and he was only sixth in the 23-lap race.

The gap to race winner Jorge Lorenzo was a massive 26 seconds and Rossi reiterated his pleas for more upgrades to roll out of Bologna as soon as possible.

The nine-times world champion said: “The bike was a little bit better because in the Warm-up we did a great modification to the setting of the bike. The weather conditions in Assen and here in Mugello doesn’t help us to improve the new bike, so we tried a big modification and it is coming better. I was able to make a better rhythm and be more close to the front. We have a bike that is different in many aspects from the one we started the season with.

“We’re aware that it needs to undergo further development from a technical point of view, but even at this stage it has shown that it has a good margin of improvement just with set-up. We still have to work on this type of setting because we improve the turning but we lose a bit of grip but we can work more on this setting for the new bike. The gap is 0.8s from the top. If we race with the new surface and the other one with the old then maybe we can win. But 0.8s in the race is the same gap as in some other places, so we need to work.”

Rossi said he lost vital ground at the start of the race because of a clutch problem, which meant he had to pick his way by Cal Crutchlow, Colin Edwards, Alvaro Bautista and Hector Barbera.

He added: “I lost some time on the start because the clutch slipped, and I was almost last into the first turn, with a lot of ground to make up. It’s a shame because I’ve always managed to do well on the starts with the Ducati this year. Still, I’m not sure how long I would have been able to stay with (Ben) Spies and (Marco) Simoncelli even if I had started better. The problem is quite clear and we have to work. First we need to improve the setting of this bike but also make something else to make a bigger step. The problems are the same, also because the bike is the same. The new bike changes the rear, the rear works but the front remains the same, so we need to make something.”