Rossi’s brave bid for glory fails
Valentino Rossi gave it everything in a bid to win at Brno and close the gap to championship table-topper Marc Marquez. Strong in the early part of Sunday’s race and close at times to breaking away, Rossi’s rear tyre life in the latter stages ended any hope of finishing on the podium with an M1 he is still stuggling to turn into a race winner.
Coming home in fourth means he is now 49 points behind Marc Marquez in the title fight and he admitted his attention needs to be not on catching the reigning champion but on defending his own place.
“It was an important race because I got to follow Marquez, Dovizioso, Lorenzo and Crutchlow. But doing that only confirmed things I already know about our bike. When they open the throttle, they can accelerate in a better way and save the tyre more. He continued: “It was a good day for me because I increased the advantage over Maverick and Zarco in the championship but it looks now like the bigger problem for second place might be Dovi and Lorenzo. “We’re here to try to win the championship, so for sure we won’t give up until the end of the final race, but with Marc and the Honda doing so well, it will be difficult.”
‘The bigger problem might be Dovi and Lorenzo’