While Giacomo Agostini was pretty well disappointed on how Valentino Rossi’s two day test debut on the Ducati went, Rossi’s rivals had other opinions and seemed to accept this result as logical and somewhat expected.
“Rossi is a rider who thinks a lot, he’s less instinctive than we younger guys are.
We’d thought that it wouldn’t be a walk in the park with the Ducati,” said former team mate and 2010 World Champion Jorge Lorenzo.
“Certainly Stoner has adapted very quick to the Honda, but Rossi needs more time to understand the bike.
”While ex-Ducati rider Casey Stoner interviewed by Sportmediaset said, “ Valentino has to adapt to the Ducati, he’s got a different feeling and needs more time.
His real problem is that there aren’t enough tests, but these two days were important.
” Even Marco Melandri, who tested the Yamaha R1 superbike in Valencia yesterday, also commented on Rossi’s test.
Melandri was almost mentally destroyed from his 2008 experience with Desmosedici, leaving him seriously doubting his capabilities as racer and it didn’t help that Ducati believing that it was his problem, packing him off to see a psychologist during the first months of that horrid season.
“Everyone was expecting better, but he’ll come out of it, he has more talent than I do and more power ….
We’ll see how Ducati will react.
” It seems like that Rossi’s direct rivals aren’t letting their guard down and expecting that he’ll still be a force to be reckoned with when he get’s the Ducati sorted out to his liking.
