pictures: Valancia Turn 1 Crash Bautista, De Puniet, Rossi, Hayden

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MotoGP Valencia crash turn 1. Riders involved: Alvaro Bautista, Randy De Puniet, Valentino Rossi, and Nicky Hayden.

source: crash

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More misery for baffled Valentino Rossi

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Valentino Rossi suffered another Ducati front-end crash in yesterday’s Phillip Island race that heaped more frustration and disappointment on the nine-times world champion.

Rossi had just passed factory Suzuki rider Alvaro Bautista for fifth place on lap 14 at Turn 10 when he lost the front-end of his GP11.1 machine and tumbled out.

Rossi was once again baffled as to why he’d lost the front with what he felt was a routine overtake on Spaniard Bautista at the downhill right-hander.

Yesterday’s crash was the latest in a long line of front-end crashes for the 32-year-old, who seems increasingly bewildered at how to solve Ducati’s inherent lack of front-end feel.

He has complained constantly ever since he made his Ducati debut in Valencia nearly a year ago about a lack of front-end confidence. But radical changes to the Desmosedici, including a switch to an aluminium frame, are having little impact.

Rossi’s crash in Phillip Island continued a dismal October for the seven-times MotoGP world champion after he tumbled out of the Japanese race earlier this month on the first lap.

Rossi said: "It’s a shame because I could have been fifth. It was an unfortunate crash that I wasn’t expecting. I had lost a bit in the first laps compared to (Nicky) Hayden and Bautista, but then I found my rhythm and I was going to catch them because I was in a better situation with my tyres. I caught them fairly easily and I passed Nicky.

"Then when I passed Bautista, unfortunately, I lost the front after passing him. I didn’t expect it at all, because it wasn’t such a violent or late braking move. You can see that well from the television. I had already passed Bautista in the left-hand corner and after looking at the data, I entered exactly as I did on the previous laps. The front closed, and honestly, I don’t understand why."

source: MCN

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Pictures: Valentino Rossi Crash Motegi MotoGP 2011

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'Unlucky' Rossi crashes out after turn two contact

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"When Lorenzo touched me, it pushed me into Spies, who touched my front brake lever... I was in the wrong place at the wrong time" - 

Valentino Rossi's Japanese MotoGP ended at the second turn, when contact with Factory Yamaha riders Jorge Lorenzo and Ben Spies ended with the Italian down and out (see below for further pictures).

"Unfortunately, Lorenzo went onto the grass slightly in Turn 1, and in the next turn he moved suddenly to get his trajectory right. He didn't see me because I was slightly behind," explained Rossi.

"When he touched me, it pushed me into Spies, who touched my front brake lever. It was normal racing contact, but I was in the wrong place at the wrong time."

Rossi suffered a hard blow to a finger on his left hand, although X-rays carried out after he returned to the garage didn't reveal any fractures. 

The fall was especially frustrating since Rossi had hoped to build on a weekend best of fourth place in the morning warm-up session.

“It's really a shame to be out of the race after two corners, especially after the progress that we made this weekend, and with the knowledge that we'd worked on the bike well," he said. "I was fourth in the morning warm-up, and it would have been possible to have a pace in the high 1min 46 range. 

"I also think our choice of tyres for the race - hard on the back and soft on the front - was correct. When you also consider the troubles that Stoner, Simoncelli and Dovizioso had, we could have fought for the podium, which would have been really nice for us. We were a little unlucky. 

"Anyway, we did a good job this weekend, and we were more competitive than usual. It's a challenging time for us, but we hope we're on the right path.”

source: crash

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Rossi suffers 'hole' in arm, shoulder pain

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Valentino Rossi endured a painful start to his 250th grand prix weekend with a big crash in morning practice for the German MotoGP at Sachsenring - then stopped out on track in the afternoon.

The seven-time MotoGP champion, who has just one podium to his credit from eight races for Ducati, was one of four riders caught out by the ultra-fast Turn 11 this morning.

"This morning's crash caused a hole in my right arm that looks like a little anatomy lesson because you can see 'inside' as far as the muscle, but I also took a hit on my shoulder- the right one, which was operated on, and which now hurts a little," said Rossi.

"It's nothing too bad, and I wasn't really affected much today. Let's hope that's also true for tomorrow, especially the shoulder."

Rossi finished FP1 in 14th place and was only 12th at the end of FP2, having lost track time once again when he was forced to abandon his number one bike.

"We did lose some time for working on the bike's setup, also because I got stranded in the second session," he confirmed. "It wasn't due to technical troubles but rather to a small bit of debris that was stuck, causing a precautionary engine shutdown.

"I think that tomorrow we'll be able to improve because we're working on a setting that's halfway between the Mugello one and the standard one, and we think it will be good for this track.

"At the moment we're losing a lot of time in some sections because although the rear of the GP11.1 is much more stable under acceleration, which is important, we still haven't found a good balance with the front. If we manage to find a compromise, I'll be able to do much better.”

While Rossi languished outside the top ten, team-mate Nicky Hayden led the Ducati challenge, finishing 4th and then 6th on the timesheets on an anti-clockwise track that suits his dirt-track background.

"We had good, stable weather all day for the first time in a long time, which makes testing things quite a bit easier," said the American. "This morning we had a really good session. I came out of the gate strong like you're supposed to and stayed in the top five for most of the time.

"It wasn't a bad day overall. In both sessions, we went faster with every little change, using the same set of tyres through the whole session. We improved the lap time this afternoon, but it seemed like the improvements were a little bit harder to make.

"We tried a couple things at the end that felt good but maybe need a little more time and adjustments. We'll see what we can do overnight and where we are tomorrow."

source: Crash.net

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Valentino Rossi FP1 Sachsenring Crash

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Valentino Rossi FP1 Sachsenring Crash





















































video:File name: 2011-ger-mgp-fp1-act-rossi-crash-ST_clean.mov_2.flv
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