Aragon MotoGP: Valentino Rossi fears tough race

Valentino Rossi expects a tough Motorland Aragon MotoGP race tomorrow after he could only qualify in a disappointing seventh place on the grid.

The Italian made a vital mistake on his final flying lap and a best time of 1.50.017 left him down on the third row of the grid for the second time in the last three races.
He was over a second off the pace of Casey Stoner and was beaten by non-factory duo Ben Spies and Randy de Puniet.

Rossi, who has yet to qualify higher than fourth since returning from the broken right leg he suffered in Mugello earlier this season, said: “It was a very difficult day. This morning was very bad and this afternoon was better but unfortunately I made a mistake with the soft tyre on a good lap and without this I’d be a lot closer to the top guys and starting on the second row.

“I ran wide at turn ten and I lost half-a-second because I ran off the track. I have to start from the third row and it will be more difficult because we are not very strong and not very fast. We suffer a lot in the top speed compared to all the other bikes and at the same time we are not strong enough in the corners to recover some time. It will be a hard race.”

Elaborating further on his set-up issues this morning he said: “We tried to modify the setting but I lost a lot of corner speed and the bike doesn’t turn enough. For this afternoon we made another setting and in general it was not so bad.

“I need some more tenths to improve my position but starting from the third row makes it very hard. But we have still the warm-up to try and improve our pace.”