Top-ten for Rossi in his final home GP

PETRONAS Yamaha Sepang Racing Team’s Valentino Rossi ended the Gran Premio Made in Italy e dell’Emilia Romagna, the final home MotoGP of his career, with a top-ten finish. Team-mate Andrea Dovizioso ended his home GP in the points in 13th.

In a race that saw eight riders fail to finish, Rossi rode a smart race and made no mistakes in the dry conditions – the first time all weekend that the Misano circuit had been completely dry. After maintaining his 23rd position off the line, the Italian was able to stay with the field and had moved into the points positions by lap 13. A strong end to the final home MotoGP of his career saw ‘Vale’ battle to the chequered flag and cross the line tenth. Rossi was then able to celebrate his result with his yellow-clad crowd in an emotional final honour lap of Misano.

Fellow Italian Dovizioso, who lined up 21st on the grid, lost places at the start of the 27-lap MotoGP and was 23rd on the opening lap. He enjoyed a brief battle with team-mate Rossi early on, but was unable to stay with him as the race unfolded. Despite being handed a long lap penalty late on for exceeding track limits, ‘Dovi’ was still able to finish his home GP inside the points in 13th.

There will now be a one-week break for Rossi and Dovizioso before the final two Grands Prix of the season, which will be run back-to-back, get underway with the Grande Prémio do Algarve first up (5-7 November).

Razlan Razali
Team Principal
It’s great that we were able to take nine points from today’s MotoGP race and gain a place in the teams’ championship, which was something very positive today. It’s been emotional to see Valentino’s last dance in Italy and be part of his final home race. It was a difficult day for Dovizioso, but he did a good job to finish inside of the points today.

Jake recovered well in the Moto2 race, after serving his long lap penalty that he picked up in Qualifying yesterday, to finish with some points in 13th. Unfortunately Xavi crashed while in a good position, which is a shame as he looked like he could achieve a top-ten today.

In Moto3 Darryn had a good start and did a great job to make it into the podium fight in third. A podium would have been nice, but due to the speed deficit that he had he was unable to maintain that position. We’re still happy with fourth place though. It was unfortunate that John had a crash today, but we know that he’s also not 100% fit at the moment. We wish him well and that he comes back strong in Portimao.

We would like to congratulate Fabio on his World Championship title and we are very proud to have been part of his journey in the past two years. We’re also happy for Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP and Yamaha. I’m sure that Fabio will be a strong force in the years to come. We now have two more races to go and we are looking forward to getting more points in those final GPs.

Valentino Rossi
10th (+27.735)
I’m happy about today because I was able to have a decent race, despite starting from the back of the grid. I had a good pace, plus I felt good with the bike and the tyres. I was able to push, enjoy some fights for position and finish in the top-ten. This is the best way to say “ciao” to the crowd because there has been a great atmosphere today with the track full of fans. I was also able to enjoy some nice moments after the flag. Usually I don’t like surprises, but to see ‘Grazie Vale’ around the circuit and all the celebrations organised after the chequered flag was very emotional for me. Fabio [Quartararo] really deserves the title because he has always been very strong and made no mistakes. I send my congratulations to him.

Andrea Dovizioso
13th (+41.413)
It has been a very difficult weekend because we struggled a lot in the wet and I was not that fast yesterday. I expected a bit more today, not with our position but with our pace, however it didn’t feel good from the start of the race. I didn’t really improve this weekend, however we tackled some bad conditions and this can help us make changes to the bike. Overall though, I’m not too happy with the weekend, but I expect to improve the feeling in Portimao. Fabio [Quartararo] has done something crazy this year and is riding in a special way, so big congratulations to him because he has been so consistent this year and I’m really happy for him.

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