MotoGP News
Date: 11/April/2012
Unless there is a sudden turnaround in fortunes, the dream Valentino Rossi-Ducati partnership could be heading for a messy divorce.
Having endured a humbling debut 2011 season at Ducati with remarkable humour, Rossi’s patience snapped after a miserable weekend on the ‘all new’ 2012 bike at the opening round in Qatar.
The first complete Ducati to be built with input from Rossi and his mechanics, and featuring the same kind of aluminium frame used on the Japanese bikes, hopes were high that the seven-time MotoGP champion would be back to winning ways in 2012.
Instead, Rossi performed even worse than last year at Losail, when he rode from ninth on the grid to seventh.
Twelfth and last of the manufacturer bikes in 2012 qualifying, Rossi finished just tenth in the race. The stopwatch was equally harsh - 16 seconds from victory last season, ballooning to 34 seconds.
Afterwards, a dejected Rossi told the Italian media:
"I'm not able to ride the bike as I like and I'm faster on old tyres than on new. I have no confidence, and I can't even get ahead of [team-mate] Hayden, who gave everything to finish 28 seconds behind the leader."
And then came the words that will have been most painful for Ducati.
"The problems with the bike haven't changed, and neither have my requests,” stated Rossi. “It's unrideable, and it doesn't make much difference what track we are on.”
Ducati is yet to react to Rossi’s stinging criticism.
Rossi, a winner of 79 premier-class grand prix races, finished seventh in the 2011 championship with just a single podium. The Doctor will be racing a Ferrari sportscar at Monza in Italy this weekend.
No comments:
Post a Comment