Rossi ‘expected a lot more’, turn ten crash a ‘great shame’

Valentino Rossi endured a difficult MotoGP of Catalunya as a turn ten crash brought his race to a premature end. 

Rossi was running 13th after a difficult opening few laps and struggled to make any impression on the top ten. 

But Rossi was not alone in being caught out by the newly surfaced and constructed turn ten, as Marc Marquez and Aleix Espargaro had also taken earlier falls at that same corner. 

Regardless of the crash, the pace shown was not what was expected from the nine-time world champion following an improved FP4, qualifying and warm-up session. 

"We expected a lot more from the race today, because I had a good pace yesterday morning. 

"I tried the hard tyre in FP4 and I felt good, I was fast after a few laps on them, so we decided to use the hard rear in the race. 

"Unfortunately, from the first lap, I didn’t have the grip I expected on the rear and I lost time each time. In the end I had some vibration and crashed in Turn 10. 

"It’s a great shame and something we need to understand. Tomorrow we have a test here, I think we will try the medium tyre, to understand the feeling it gives, and there might be some other things we test as well."

As Rossi pointed out, there will be a one-day test at Catalunya tomorrow with the Italian surely hoping to find similar gains as he did during the post Jerez race weekend test.