‘Great shame’ for Rossi in front of home crowd

Valentino Rossi has described the ‘great shame’ of yesterday’s MotoGP race in front of his home crowd in Mugello, as a blown engine took him out of contention for his first win at the track since 2008.

Strong all weekend and fast enough for pole position on Saturday, Rossi looked like a capable match for teammate Jorge Lorenzo until the problem – Yamaha’s second in nearly as many hours – put paid to his hopes.

“It‘s a great shame, because it‘s always a pity when you have a problem with the bike in the race, but here even more so because it was in Mugello in front of all the crowd. I was very competitive in the race and very fast, I had a good start and I was there. I think I could have fought for the victory because I had a very good feeling and a strong pace.”

“It‘s also a great shame because this zero points score for the championship weighs very heavily. Lorenzo and Marquez finished first and second, so now the distance is hard, but it‘s like this.”

However, the Italian was keen to look at the pluses of the weekend, heralding his pace as a positive sign.

“The positive thing is that I was competitive over the whole weekend and I was strong. I could have fought for the victory, so now we wait for the next race in Montmeló. Catalunya is one of my favourite tracks, I like to race there a lot, so I think we will have a good potential, but now we have to wait ten days and after that we will see.”