Valentino Rossi

Following the death of Luis Salom, Rossi says that MotoGP will never be safe.

If I thought a little bit I could give to you a minimum of 10 corners, Motegi, Turn 4, for example. It’s something where every year we go and we say ‘we need more run-off.’ You check the situation. You cannot extend the run-off area, this is the reality,” he added. During the season you have a lot of points where if something happened with the bike you don’t have enough space. I remember in Jerez some years ago, Roberto Locatelli had the accident at the exit of Turn 10. The steering was stuck to the left and he went into the wall on the left in a place that is straight. In a place where it’s straight, it’s impossible to have 100 metres of run-off area. We’d have to race in the desert. Maybe Qatar is the only place where that’s OK, [but Marc] Marquez tried a start this year and he locked the front and he went to the left. It’s very difficult to have 100% safety. Unfortunately it’s something that you cannot fix.

After post-race testing Rossi says that a new chassis could be used in the Netherlands GP. After evaluating some new Michelin rear tyres, Rossi runs once on the new frame. Testing will continue through Tuesday.

The first impression was good. Tomorrow with more time I will test the chassis more deeply. Tomorrow can be an important day because we have some interesting things; the chassis, the swingarm… some things like this arriving from Yamaha. So it will be interesting to understand if we are able to improve a bit. What you expect from a new chassis is more a less then same: Try to make the corner fastest usually. This is the target!

Rossi says he is ready for the Catalunya Grand Prix.

The race is held at one of my favourite tracks. I like the circuit a lot as well as the atmosphere. I think that I can have a good potential to do a good race. I’m coming to Spain with the knowledge that I’m able to be fast, but also with regret for what would have been a great race at Mugello. The most important thing is that we were very fast on Sunday thanks to the work we did during the weekend. In Barcelona we have to work in the same way and get ready to race.

Rossi says that the engine failure at the Italian GP has hurt his chances of winning the title.

This year I am faster, I am more competitive. In the practice every time I am stronger but unfortunately I made a mistake in Austin, but Lorenzo and Marquez also made mistakes. But unfortunately this one’s very heavy. It was from Misano 2007 that my bike [last] broke in the race. But it can happen. I think that there was something wrong with both engines between Lorenzo and me, but the bigger difference is that Lorenzo’s happened in the warm-up and mine happened in the race. It’s a great shame also for the championship because I take the zero and also Lorenzo and Marquez arrived first and second, so now the distance from the top is 37 points. It’s very bad, it’s quite a big gap but the beautiful thing, the good thing, the positive aspect is that I was fast, I was strong. I was very, very fast in the race.

Silvano Galbusera, Rossi’s crew chief says that Yamaha are still investigating the cause of Rossi’s engine blowout at the Italian GP. Rossi told Galbusera that the last engine that blew was at Misano in 2007. Galbusera also adds that engines that fail to such a degree are not a Yamaha tradition. He also says that Lorenzo’s engine, which blew out in qualifying, had significantly more kilometers than Rossi’s, and that swapping Rossi’s engine before the race and sending the Italian to the grid with a brand new lump would have been even riskier.

It’s bad luck. We removed engines with twice the number of kilometers…We are not are able to understand what happened yet. The engine will be fully analyzed.