Filippo Preziosi defended Valentino Rossi after his horrible qualifying session in Qatar saying that Rossi’s talent is out of the question, however after yesterday’s lowly 10th place finish, the former World Champion in a post race interview with Sportmediaset very calmly and matter-of-factly decided to get few things off his chest, but the underlying message that came across the TV screen is that Rossi has given up hope and is completely demotivated.
Here are some salient parts of the interview that has almost every MotoGP fan in Italy demanding that his contract with Ducati be rescinded and that he give back the money he has ’stolen’.
Marco Lucchinelli after hearing his words.
said that Rossi has become the ‘old Biaggi’ of MotoGP, which caused another outcry from offended Biaggi fans.
– Hector Barbera pushed him off track making him lose five seconds- this race was worse than last year’s and that he had already given up hope last season- Ducati isn’t really following his indications and that he isn’t an engineer and that he can’t fix the problems- despite the pace for 5th this isn’t what he’s in MotoGP for- he can’t ride this bike, but at least he can push a little more however admitting that but he doesn’t have any confidence- when Barbera pushed him off track and he was the last of the GP bikes he felt like returning to his pit garage but decided to continue for his squad and give them more info- he also continued because he wanted to see if busting his ass all winter long in training was worthwhile – it was – he was fresh as a daisy and never even broke into a sweat.
Here’s what he said in the bland Ducati press release:“Unfortunately, I lost a lot of time in the beginning because when I had new tyres with good grip, the rear pushed a lot, making it very difficult under braking.
Then Barbera pushed me off the track and I lost five or six seconds.
Otherwise, I could have stayed with that group.
As the tyre became used and began to slide, I started to ride a bit better and to do better times, to the point that I matched my best time on the last lap.
By that point though, it didn’t count for much.
”On the other side of the Ducati garage, Nicky Hayden showed the world that while the Ducati GP12 may still be very raw, it at least it has potential with a rider that has a never-give-up attitude and who keeps pushing no matter what.
“I felt we had the potential to run with Dovizioso and Crutchlow, but considering my injuries and limited testing over the winter, I guess sixth is pretty good.
I lost some positions at the beginning because I got hung up behind Spies and wasn’t very good on the brakes, but as the race went on, I managed my tyre well and got stronger.
That group I was in was fighting hard, and I was happy to bring Bradl back and come out on top of that battle.
We put some good points on the board, got some data and learned a lot from riding with other people.
I’m excited for the season.
I think if we improve some things, we have the potential to put up some good results.
I’d like to thank the team, the sponsors and everybody back at Ducati for all their work, because we’ve clearly taken a step forward since last year.
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