Valentino Rossi says that Ducati “have a real problem” after the team's difficulty to get the front tyre to work continued at Laguna Seca. The Italian was running a lonely eighth before his afternoon was ended by a crash at the Corkscrew, adding to his misery.
“I wasn't fighting for the podium, but a crash like that at the end of the race is still disappointing because I had done the whole race like the first lap and my rhythm wasn't fast at that moment. Still, I lost the front when I was approaching the Corkscrew, when the bike was vertical, right when I touched the brake, a bit like happened at Silverstone. We have a real problem: again today, we had a hard time getting the front tyre to work, and it was like new after thirty laps. Fortunately I'm fine, although it was a pretty hard crash. It wasn't a great weekend. Now we have a short break, two important weeks, and then we'll see how it goes at Indy.”
Teammate Nicky Hayden fared better as he finished sixth in front of his home crowd but wasn't exactly happy either. The former world champion chased down Stefan Bradl before overtaking him five laps from home but admitted he was hoping for much better.
“The day got off to a rough start, as I crashed in the warm-up session when I didn't have enough heat in the brakes. For the race, my bike was the best it's been this weekend, and I got a good start, but then Bautista and I touched. I thought maybe I knocked my brake lever, so I was too careful in turns one and two. Then I got held up behind Bautista and lost a gap to that second group, which I spent most of the race trying to bridge. I got to Bradl, but the other guys were already gone, although I didn't have the pace to run with them anyway. I was fighting the bike and running wide in the turns, but I pushed until the end. It's frustrating to struggle so much all weekend at Laguna, and it's not the way I wanted to go into the two-week break, but I think we can put up a better fight at Indy.”
