ROSSI ADDS TO PODIUM TALLY WITH SECOND PLACE AT ISTANBUL
Gauloises Yamaha Team rider Valentino Rossi took his fifteenth
podium from sixteen races this season after finishing second
in the inaugural Grand Prix of Turkey. Whilst Marco Melandri
(Honda) backed up his practice pace with a strong victory
at the front, Rossi overcame a series of set-up problems and
a bad start in the race to push his fellow Italian hard over
the final few laps. Rossi’s Gauloises Yamaha team-mate
Colin Edwards finished seventh today, improving his pace towards
the end of the race as he continued to adapt to a new riding
style. Starting from the second row of the grid, Rossi did
not get the ideal jump from the line and had dropped two places
to sixth by the end of the first lap. As the Italian made
his way through the field Sete Gibernau (Honda) took the lead,
only to run off the track two laps later and allow Melandri,
Nicky Hayden (Honda) and Rossi through. Rossi passed Hayden
on lap eight and began an intense pursuit of Melandri over
the final two thirds of the race, although he was unable to
make up the gap between the pair and could do nothing to prevent
the youngster from clinching his first ever MotoGP victory.
VALENTINO ROSSI (2nd - +1.513)
“On Friday and Saturday we struggled to find a good
setting for the bike; yesterday morning I felt like I wanted
to go home! It wasn’t until qualifying practice yesterday
afternoon that we began to understand what the problem was.
We made some more steps forward in the warm-up this morning
and went in a slightly different direction with the setting,
which in the end wasn’t so bad. Unfortunately I made
a big mistake at the start and conceded a couple of seconds
to the leader, which proved to be a big gap to make up. Melandri
was very fast throughout the race and in certain points of
the track I knew he was faster than me, so it would have been
very hard to pass him. Anyway, I am satisfied with second
place – it is a good result for us after all the troubles
we’ve had this weekend and I’m really pleased
with the way the team worked to overcome a difficult situation.”
COLIN EDWARDS (7th – +29.255)
“I struggled today. I’ve been trying a new riding
style this weekend which has really helped me find some more
pace from the bike, but my instinct took over at the start
of the race and I just went back to my old superbike style,
trying to squeeze everything out of the bike. Once I had calmed
down and focused on the new style I managed to get it together
and I actually set my fastest lap of the race on lap 20, which
tells its own story. I hate to say that this Grand Prix has
been like a test but we have to look to improving our performances
next season and I firmly believe we have contributed to that
here, even though the race result was not what we were after.”
DAVIDE BRIVIO – GAULOISES YAMAHA TEAM DIRECTOR
“Valentino had a very difficult weekend so second place
in the race today is a good result. After the problems we
had on Friday and Saturday morning the team worked very hard
right up to the start of the race, as they always do, and
helped Vale find some more speed. Second place is not so bad
and now he has one more race to try to make it twelve wins
for the season. Colin also had a few problems this weekend
but he has tried something completely new to him and this
race was like a transition. I think we will see the benefit
of it next season.”
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