It took 993 days or two years, eight months and 19 days for Valentino Rossi took take his 80th victory in MotoGP and it was a highly emotional one for the former 9 times World Champion who declared, “I’m happy but I can’t believe it and it’s a great feeling to be back in first position.
It’s been a long, long time since Sepang 2010 and during those years I’ve ask myself the question: ‘Can I get back to first position?’ So it’s been a tough period but I’ve never given up and I’ve always worked hard because this is my passion.
I love to ride and race motorcycles.
Starting from fourth on the grid the Italian moved to third on the first lap to second on the fourth and took the lead on the sixth and from there he controlled the race pace.
There was no sluggishness off the starting line with a full fuel tank that had characterized his previous races, no problems under braking after finding a ‘breakthrough’ set-up during the Aragon tests, this was the best Rossi we’ve seen in a long, long time.
Rossi thanked Yamaha for giving him another opportunity, but he also admitted that even with his form today, he would have struggled against a healthy Jorge Lorenzo – who he described as the best rider of the moment – and lauded and called his team mate a hero, for his incredibly courageous performance just a day after undergoing a collarbone surgery, while he said he would have stayed home and watched the race on TV.
“Today was something special, this is one of the best victories in my career because it is one of the most wanted and expected for such a lot of time.
I’m so happy because I won a real race where all my opponents were very strong and very fast, apart from Jorge with his injury.
It was great from the beginning, I had a good feeling, I could overtake on braking and I felt good on the bike.
It was difficult but the finish line was calling me so I had to arrive as fast as possible.
We have made a step with the bike, I can ride in a better way so we have to try and stay with the top guys every weekend.
Jorge rode an incredible race, we have to say a special great congratulations because he had great courage to do this and also he made an important step for his Championship,” said Rossi who hopes that he can now can fight regularly for a podium.
Jorge Lorenzo was incredible today at Assen His passion and not wanting to give up more points than needed (he lost only 2 to Pedrosa) made the reigning world champion fly home – because they couldn’t operate him immediately in Assen – undergo a 2 hour surgery early Friday morning, fly back to Assen Friday evening, undergo a fitness test and then take part in the warm-up practice, where he realized he could ride and even be competitive.
His steely determination, with the addition of painkillers and a courageous ride allowed the Spaniard to overtake and move up to fourth and capitalize on his performance in the first seven laps, before the strain of the riding a MotoGP bike began to take its toil on the right side of his body where he was compensating for the loss of strength, but he was so far ahead that he only dropped to fifth, and his position was never contested.
“It would have been impossible to believe some minutes after my crash that this could happen.
We were brave to make the operation the same day, if I had waited to Friday the doctors would not have let me race.
We made the race today and I was very brave in the first laps because passing the riders with a collarbone like this under braking was really hard.
I felt quite good physically at the beginning of the race but after lap seven every lap was worse; it was more difficult to change direction, to brake and to accelerate so I couldn’t do more than fifth position.
We only lost two points to Dani who is leading the Championship.
This fifth position is better than any victory I have had in my career.
I hope to have a good recovery for Germany, I will not be 100% but I hope to be better than here.
The victory for Valentino and the third for Crutchlow are good for the Championship, I would have preferred Cal to finish in front of Marc but you can’t always have perfection! I am happy for Valentino, more than two years without winning has been hard for him so I’m happy for my box partner.
After Aragon I think he made some improvements and here he took profit from the opportunity.
Lets see what happens in Sachsenring as last year we had some issues and the Hondas were strong but I think if I can improve my physical condition I can be more competitive than this race,” said Lorenzo.
