This weekend will see the Spielberg circuit host the second of two back-to-back MotoGP events, where PETRONAS Yamaha Sepang Racing Team’s Valentino Rossi will once again be joined by Cal Crutchlow for the AustrianGP.
Having demonstrated good pace throughout the sessions at Spielberg last weekend and scoring valuable points in the race, Rossi will be aiming for more of the same in a few day’s time at the AustrianGP. The Italian has identified areas for improvement and will be focused on making further progress at the Spielberg circuit. With the aim of recording another points-scoring finish, Valentino will also be hoping to join the fight for the top-ten.
Crutchlow, who is deputising for the recovering Franco Morbidelli, completed his first race aboard the PETRONAS Yamaha SRT machine last weekend. The Brit rode a sensible race, making no mistakes, and was able to set several personal best sector times. With another GP at the Spielberg circuit this weekend, Cal will be aiming to use what he learned during the StyrianGP to increase his speed further and continue to make improvements. Rossi and Crutchlow’s weekend will once again start at 9.55am local time (3.55pm MYT) on Friday with Warm Up, while Sunday’s 28-lap MotoGP race will be at the usual time of 2pm local time (8pm MYT).
Valentino Rossi
It’s good to be at home for three days to train and prepare for the next round in Austria. It wasn’t a bad first race at Spielberg; I was able to fight with those around me and we managed to score points. We now need to look at how we can improve, primarily with the settings of the bike, try some small things with it and work to be stronger this weekend. The target will be to work well in the sessions and try to get a better position on the grid. Then on Sunday we will try to improve the start, have a good pace again and take some points. I would also like to be able to fight for the top-ten.
Cal Crutchlow
It was really good to be back racing again last weekend and physically I felt quite good. We need to look at the data and try to understand why we had problems with rear traction, especially as we didn’t have this problem before. I’m really looking forward to riding again and my main aim will be to improve upon my performance from the StyrianGP and go even faster this weekend. We have margin to improve and it will be interesting to continue working on the bike at the same circuit for three more days.
