Valentino Rossi is not having an easy start to the season. Moved to the satellite Petronas team, the Yamaha rider only has four points from three races and is 19th in the championship standings.
In Portimao , Rossi started 17th after another of his worst classifications on Saturday, but in the race he was coming back in full swing and was already eleventh when he crashed on lap 15.
Precisely the last rider he had hunted down was Luca Marini, who had started eighth. For the one from Tavullia it was strange to run into a motorcycle with his logo ( VR46 ) and on which his brother was riding.
Even so, the #46 did not have many considerations. After a couple of laps in his wake, seeing that he was going faster, he noticed him.
“Unfortunately, I had to be aggressive with my brother because I was faster than him. I was behind Alex Márquez and we were going more or less the same, but then I lost a lap to overtake Luca. It was strange to overtake a bike with the logo of VR46, but above all overtaking my brother”, explained Rossi.
The nine-time world champion is not going through a good time. At 42 years old , the next races are vital for the future. His hopes are that the circuits to come are more to his liking than Losail and Portimao.
“In qualifying I have to do better. It’s hard for me to improve on the soft tyres. This race gives me confidence, because I’ve been better today and in the next ones we’ll go to circuits that are good on paper. We ‘ve improved the set-up and I was able to use the hard rear, which gives me more stability, so I have been able to go better and I have not been very far from the group that has fought for the podium”, he clinched.
