SCINTILLATING ROSSI SHINES FOR MICHELIN IN THE SPANISH SUN

Το Σαββατοκύριακο που μας πέρασε, ο Valentino Rossi έλαμψε στην πίστα  της Jerez, κατακτώντας την έκτη νίκη του με ελαστικά Michelin στην κορυφαία κατηγορία των MotoGP και πρώτη του νίκη  για τη σαιζόν.

Ο Rossi επέλεξε για την Yamaha του το μπροστινό σκληρό MICHELIN Power Slick σε συνδυασμό με το μεσαίο πίσω. Η διαχείριση της κατάστασης του ελαστικού ήταν ένα σημαντικό θέμα στη δύσκολη πίστα της Jerez. Παρόλα αυτά ο Ιταλός πραγματοποίησε μια εξαιρετική εμφάνιση ξεκινώντας από την pole position και μένοντας επικεφαλής του αγώνα από την αρχή μέχρι τη σημαία του τερματισμού για πρώτη φορά στην καριέρα του.

Η Michelin παρέμεινε στην πίστα της Jerez για άλλη μια ημέρα, προκειμένου να διεξάγει δοκιμές ελαστικών την Δευτερα, προτού επιστρέψει στη Γαλλία για τον επόμενο γύρο MotoGP που θα διεξαχθεί στο Le Mans την Κυριακή 8/5

Valentino Rossi – Movistar Yamaha MotoGP:
“Είμαι τόσο χαρούμενος για αυτό το αποτέλεσμα γιατί ένιωθα καλά τόσο για τη μοτοσυκλέτα όσο και για τα ελαστικά από την Παρασκευή και μετά. Ηλπιζα να είμαι δυνατός στη Jerez αυτή τη χρονιά, γιατί πέρυσι έκανα μεγάλη προσπάθεια, για αυτό ήταν φανταστικά για μένα. Αυτή η νίκη είναι πολύ σημαντική γιατί ήρθε στην κατάλληλη στιγμή.  Είναι μια πραγματικά σημαντική νίκη. Από την αρχή ως το τέλος ήταν φανταστικά!

SCINTILLATING ROSSI SHINES FOR MICHELIN IN THE SPANISH SUN  

Valentino Rossi gave a riding masterclass today to take his sixth premier-class victory on Michelin tyres at the Jerez circuit in Spain and his first MotoGP™ win of the season

Starting from pole-position, the nine-time World Champion got the hole-shot on his Yamaha and led into the first corner with the following pack in close attendance.  Rossi increased his lead on the first of the 27-laps around the 4,423m Spanish circuit and showed his intent early on, with current champion Jorge Lorenzo on a Yamaha and the Honda mounted championship leader Marc Marquez leading the chasing pack. Rossi rode a faultless race throughout and never came under pressure as he stretched his lead at the front, before crossing the line to take victory by over two-seconds from Lorenzo, with Marquez securing the final podium position in third.

Rossi chose to use a hard MICHELIN Power Slick on the front of his Yamaha, coupled with a medium rear – the same as the other podium finishers – and with tyre conservation an important issue around the difficult Jerez circuit, the Italian served up a superb performance which saw him start from pole and lead a race from the beginning to the chequered flag for the first time in his career.

A large and enthusiastic crowd at trackside, all bathed in beautiful sunshine – which was a contrast from the foggy conditions that greeted the paddock first thing this morning – saw Honda’s Dani Pedrosa take the fourth position and the Suzuki pair of Aleix Espargaro and Maverick Viñales claimed fifth and sixth places respectively. Andrea Iannone battled his way through the field on his Ducati from eleventh on the grid to claim seventh, with the satellite Yamaha ridden by Pol Espargaro securing eighth to give the Spaniard the honour of First Independent Team Rider. Eugene Laverty in ninth and Hector Barbera – both riding Ducati satellite machines – rounded out the top-ten. In the championship classification, Marquez retains his lead, but with a reduced margin over Lorenzo in second and today’s winner Rossi in a close third.

Michelin will remain at Jerez for one more day for a full and comprehensive tyre test on the Monday, before heading back home to France for the next round of the MotoGP World Championship, which will be staged at Le Mans on Sunday 8th May.

Valentino Rossi – Movistar Yamaha MotoGP:
“I am so happy about this result because I felt good about the bike and the tyres from Friday onwards. I hoped I could be strong in Jerez this year, because last year I struggled a lot, so for me it was great. This victory was very important because it arrived at the right moment; it is a really important victory, starting from the beginning right to the end, so it was great!”

Nicolas Goubert – Deputy Director, Technical Director and Supervisor of the MotoGP Programme:
“This weekend we have had some very positive moments, the front tyres have improved a lot and the riders now have a lot of confidence in them. We brought a new compound here and that has worked very well in the different conditions – especially on the colder track in the morning – and we are very pleased with the results. We have also only had two crashes this weekend which is certainly a good sign of improvement, especially when you consider the number of falls in both Moto2™ and Moto3™, and how difficult the track conditions were. This afternoon the surface was over 40°C and that was more than 20° warmer than this morning, so tyre wear was an important factor and we are very pleased with the durability that our tyres showed. We now have an important test tomorrow, where we hope we can confirm the casing construction that we will use for the rest of the season.”

Piero Taramasso – Manager of the Two-Wheel Motorsport Group:
“We have had a good weekend here at Jerez and have learned many things, it was also very important for us to use all five versions of tyres in the race, three fronts and two rears, to see how they performed in race conditions. We have had a difficult situation to overcome this weekend as well though. On Saturday we lost the use of six of the tyre fitters due to illness, which was diagnosed as a gastro virus. They were treated by the MotoGP Doctor and made a bit of a recovery overnight, so that they were able to do their job today. This was a setback and we had to delay the start of yesterday’s Free Practice session to allow the technicians enough time to assist the remaining fitters to make sure all the tyres were on the rims and that they were warmed up and safe to use in the afternoon. We can do without these situations when we need to concentrate on the race weekend, but we are happy they’re now getting better and hope that they make a full recovery soon.”