Statements

Roosi comments on closing the gap with Marc Marquez.

I’m very happy, because I recovered two points, so if we have 100 races, I can win the championship! Apart from jokes, it’s good to arrive in front of Marquez and we have to try to continue like this. For sure, in other tracks, the situation will change, but we have to try to stay always fast and take as many points as possible. It’s difficult to win a lot of points over Marquez, but the championship is very long so we have to try for maximum, also for second place [in the standings].

After finishing FP2 in fourth — 0.866s back of pace setter Andrea Dovizioso, and 0.6s off Andrea Iannone — Rossi says that he is concentrating on Ducati slipstream and fuel.

We have to just give the maximum, try to fix all the small details to go a bit faster on the straight. But you know, is very difficult to go faster on the straight. You can try to exit faster from the corner, but on the straight, the level is what it is. But you never know. It’s just Friday, we have Saturday, and especially the race is always different. It depends very much if we are able to keep the slipstream of the Ducati. The Ducati have a lot of horsepower, but what they are able to do better compared to the Yamaha and Honda is less wheelie. For this reason, they are very fast in acceleration. Because it looks like the bike accelerates more with less wheelie on the front. So for this reason it’s very difficult. It’s too early to say if we can fight with Ducatis. For me, for sure is more more important [Jorge] Lorenzo and [Marc] Márquez than the Ducati, but I don’t want to start just for third place. It’s too early. We have to try to stay with them. Also because 28 laps are very long.

Rossi says he is concerned about Turn 8 of the Austrian GP at Spielberg. Organisers took the decision to modify the final corner, Turn 10, by making the track narrower to reduce the risk of a serious accident by distancing the riders from the outside wall.

This track is very fast, and when a track is fast it’s always dangerous. Especially the exit of Turn 8 remains very dangerous. On a normal lap, you go through it quite easily, but it’s [taken at] very high speed and the wall is quite close. This for me is the most dangerous point that we have to try to improve in the next years.

Rossi talks about the Austrian GP track at Spielberg, where he had his first podium on the international finish, in 1997, as a 17-year-old.

It is a wonderful memory, my first podium was great and I could not have imagined what followed it. The track is similar to 20 years ago, when I raced with the 125, but the asphalt is new and has very good grip, it is very flat with no bounce. The track is so fast. I think it’s different to the other ones because you stay on the throttle for a lot of time, so maybe it will create a different kind of race.

On his challenges in the remaining season:

The gap of 59 points is hard to make back. In the last few races we have lost many points but we have to be strong and have the concentration to always get on the podium. The distance [to Marquez] is almost irretrievable. I will concentrate on these nine races and try to make more points than in the first half. We are starting an important moment of the season, because we have four races in five weeks and also five races in seven weeks. It’s good, because after Barcelona we had a long stop from one race to the other. That is not fantastic, and after the summer break I prefer it like this.