Valentino Rossi revealed an oil leak was causing him difficulty during the Czech Republic Grand Prix that he ultimately finished seventh in. The Ducati GP12 was seen giving off smoke throughout the race and Rossi revealed that the oil was preventing from riding the bike to his full capability.
“I started well and the early laps weren’t bad, although the bike started to lose oil right from the beginning. It went on the footrests and the brake- and shift levers, which bothered me, as my feet were slipping everywhere. I probably could have done a bit better without that inconvenience, and maybe I would have finished close to Dovizioso. Anyway, I also had to slow down because the rear tyre began sliding too much after some laps, which has been our problem. Now we’ll see in the test at Misano in two days if we can manage to find something to help us in the last races.”
Team Manager Vittoriano Guareschi stressed that the issue didn’t affect the power output of the engine but admitted it was far from ideal.
“The weekend started well. We improved steadily in every session, but the race didn’t play out positively for us. After the early laps, the bike suffered a loss of grip with the rear tyre, and Valentino lost contact with the leaders. As for the oil leak, we analysed the engine data and we have confirmed that there’s nothing unusual and that engine performance wasn’t affected. It certainly made riding more difficult because it made the footrests very slippery. We have a two-day test with Valentino at Misano on Tuesday and Wednesday, and we’ll work primarily on the chassis.”