RACE REPORT – UNITED STATES GRAND PRIX - LAGUNA SECA
23/07/2006
ROSSI’S AMERICAN COMEBACK THWARTED AT LAGUNA
SECA
 What
looked certain to be another stunning race recovery from Camel
Yamaha Team rider Valentino Rossi ended in disaster today
as the reigning MotoGP World Champion retired from the US
Grand Prix at Laguna Seca with tyre and engine troubles. After
starting from tenth on the grid Rossi slowly worked his way
through the field and with just five laps remaining he was
on course for a valuable fourth place finish. However, with
blazing sunshine bringing track temperatures up to a soaring
56ºC, the punishing conditions inevitably took their
toll and Rossi’s rear tyre developed a problem, which
forced the Italian to drop his pace. To add to Rossi’s
woes, his the water-cooling system then malfunctioned and
within moments the engine of his YZR-M1 machine overheated,
blowing clouds of smoke into the air and bringing his participation
in the race to an end.
Things started out brightly for Rossi’s Camel Yamaha
team-mate Colin Edwards before also ending in disappointment,
the Texan getting a decent start from the front row of the
grid and lapping with the lead group before identical tyre
troubles began to kick in. With the searing heat also playing
havoc on his physical condition, having suffered from flu
symptoms and an upset stomach throughout the weekend, Edwards
was unable to maintain his pace and he dropped back from fifth
place to eventually cross the line in ninth. Nicky Hayden
(Honda) took his second victory of the season to extend his
advantage at the top of the championship to 51 points over
Rossi, who has dropped to fourth overall with six rounds remaining.
COLIN EDWARDS (9th; +53.228)
“My start wasn’t great; I got off the line okay
but then as I leaned over into turn one the power went a bit
and I got slower and slower, so a few guys came past me. After
that I just had to give it all I had to hold on and do 24.1s
and 2s, which anyway is faster than we were doing on race
tyres yesterday. I also had a bit of a problem stopping the
bike, which was another thing to contend with. After ten laps
I was completely wrecked, I think being ill on Friday took
a lot out of me and suddenly I had no power left in my body.
I was feeling so bad that I was seriously considering coming
in, but then I saw Stoner crash and so I thought I had better
hold on and try and get some points! On about lap 20 the tyre
started spinning up and it just kept on getting worse and
worse on each lap. I had a few big moments where I scared
myself a bit, especially coming into turn one a few laps from
the end. With about three or four laps to go I looked over
at my rear tyre and saw just how bad the problem was, and
it was all I could do to bring it safely home. Obviously I’m
pretty gutted, the weekend hasn’t worked out how we
hoped, but that’s racing!”
VALENTINO ROSSI (DNF)
“We’ve been in a really difficult situation all
weekend, with a lot of problems and unfortunately things got
even worse today! We made a big improvement this morning in
warm-up and I was much faster, so I thought that maybe we
could do a good job in the race and to start with we made
good progress from our grid position. But then we had a problem
with the rear tyre and I lost all grip and was forced to slow
right down in order not to crash. Then we had a problem with
the water-cooling system for the engine, it overheated and
when I saw the smoke, I knew it was over. Anyway, now we’re
51 points down on Hayden with only six races left, so for
the first time I will race for the rest of the season without
thinking about the pressure of the championship. My plan is
to have a lot of fun over the remaining races and try to win
as many as possible, and then who knows what might happen?”
DAVIDE BRIVIO – CAMEL YAMAHA TEAM DIRECTOR
“It’s been a very difficult day from
every angle. We had two separate problems of a different nature
which affected both riders. Colin could have done a really
good race but he was hampered by his physical condition and
then later by a problem with his rear tyre. Valentino had
exactly the same problem with his tyre and then when he slowed
down the cooling system on his engine failed and it overheated,
so he had to retire. Now we’re a lot of points behind
in the championship and we have a mountain to climb, but we
won’t give up and we will fight to the end.”
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