Valentino Rossi said that the early stages of the Czech Grand Prix it was like a nightmare. One hour before the Brno race the rain stopped. Significantly the track was drier compared to what the riders experienced on Sunday morning. Most of them headed to the grid to run on Michelin’s soft rain tires. But Rossi and Jorge Lorenzo, Yamaha team-mate selected to choose the harder rear. In the early stages they both fell down the order. Rossi was on the 6th on the grid. But at the end of the first lap he was on the 12th. And then on the lap seven he came down to 13th. But soon after the tires came good. Eventually Rossi finished in 7 seconds just behind Cal Crutchlow, first time winner. He raced on hard rear and front.
How Rossi overcame early stages nightmare to finish at the podium
Rossi said that the conditions were different if compared to this morning. There was lots of water this morning. There was a little confusion on the grid to understand the tire choices if someone changed. Though it was risky, but at the end they tried. They didn’t unfortunately put on the hard front since he wasn’t brave like Cal. At the early stages, it was like a nightmare. A lot of time he made mistakes. Everybody just overtook him from inside and outside. It was difficult.
He understood at one point that wouldn’t dry enough for the flag to flag race. That point he understood that his choice was most probably better. Then Cal overtook him and he was quite fast. But he knew that as Cal had the hard tires so he tried to ride well without making any mistakes. After the early stages, it was fun in the second half. However the result moves Rossi in the second for the first time in the championship after the Argentina race in April.
