His Mohawk freshly cut, Yamaha’s Valentino Rossi said he was ready for war this weekend in Mugello. He was aiming to fight back against his young teammate Jorge Lorenzo. A winner here seven years in a row, Rossi uncharacteristically finished third last year.
Now, having convinced Yamaha to deprive his young rival of his set-up information before the start of this season, Rossi has nevertheless seen Lorenzo take charge of the series (including the last two wins) and a nine point lead over him going into this weekend. To make matters worse, Rossi crashed in practice Saturday morning and suffered a bad break to his leg, requiring surgery. He is likely to miss the next several rounds of the series. Rossi had been fastest in Friday’s practice session at Mugello.
We will have a race report on Sunday (with our usual link to the official MotoGP website for all the details).
is this image a picture of a computer screen?
Vale’s injury is a real loss to MotoGP fans.
Jorge has grown into an excellent “competitor” with Vales’ influence. Jorge was always an excellent rider. 2010 was shaping up to be a truly memorable year in MotoGP. Jorge can relax and cruise to the title now.
Congrats to Dani!
I think Rossi’s decision to keep his set-up info private will benefit Jorge in the long run. One thing that every long-term champion has in common is the ability to sense and fine tune the machine. Just using Rossi’s settings would not put any need for Jorge to develop that skill himself…..
Yamaha’s Valentino Rossi is ready for war, he says, as he fights back against his young teammate Jorge Lorenzo in Mugello… having convinced Yamaha to deprive his young rival of his set-up information before the start of this season…
What a great “teammate”. Stay classy, V.R.!
The first person you want to beat is your teammate.
This is racing, not needlepoint.
Besides – good as he is, Jorge is taking advantage of Rossi’s development of the M1 over the last several years. Recall that when he made the switch from Honda, the M1 was NOT a match for the RC, and hadn’t been for some time.
It’s called competitive advantage. This isn’t NASCAR where everyone gets essentially the same frickin’ thing with different sticker kits.
I understand teammates being competitive with one another, but in light of Rossi’s injuries, and likely being out of contention for the championship, would you now expect him to offer his assistance to his teammate? Or continue being an adversary only? After all, whatever help he gives his teammate this year could be used against him next year…
I seriously doubt Rossi has totally given up on the idea of not being World Champion this year. Sounds ridiculous, but it’s true. You don’t become Legend with rationale thought. Besides – Lorenzo could have problems, other people could surge and take points away…… you never know. I mean – after Pedrosa hit him, Nicky could have closed up shop. He didn’t, and Rossi flinched.
Rossi probably sees no reason to change his position now. Particularly in light of Mugello’s results and the fact that he’s probably still on some serious pain killers. 🙂
Rossia crashed in qualifying and suffered a compound fracture of his right tibia.
Elsewhere I read that Rossi has suffered a compound fracture of his lower right leg, involving both tibia and fibula. He crashed in the first practice session.
I don’t really follow racing much, but even for someone who does not, it is difficult not to be in awe of Rossi. For one thing, he evidently earns more money than I ever imagined that motorcycle racers could earn. It is difficult to know exactly because of the secrecy surrounding the contracts, but his reputed lifetime earnings easily exceed 100 million U.S. dollars, probably several times that much. In 2009 Forbes ranked him #9 among the world’s highest paid professional athletes.