The first ever Aragon Grand Prix was one to forget for the FIAT Yamaha duo of championship leader Jorge Lorenzo and Valentino Rossi. With the team on a run of 47 consecutive podium finishes, Lorenzo was looking good to make it 48, before a last lap battle with Nicky Hayden left the Spaniard in 4th. Considering Lorenzo never looked like adding another race win to his collection, after being unable to keep pace with eventual race winner Casey Stoner.
After the race, Lorenzo said, “My start was very good, but during the race I struggled a lot with Nicky always behind me, very close! We can’t be happy with the result and I am disappointed to finish my podium run, but the most important thing is that we did finish and we still took points for our championship. We have five more races to go and, although this is a complicated moment for us and we have some things to address, I am confident that we can improve again. Now we go to Motegi and I am looking forward to a good result at the home of Yamaha.”
Rossi was a shadow of himself again this weekend, with his shoulder playing up all weekend, leaving him unable to set his bike properly. The Italian was hoping to improve under race conditions, but was again unable to do what he wanted, even falling down to 9th at one point, eventually finishing 6th.
“This was a very difficult race for us” said Rossi. “We had a lot of problems all weekend and I was very slow today. I had to try to arrive to the end but I couldn’t do better than sixth. All the Yamahas have suffered here but my shoulder problems made it even worse for me and this, combined with the problems with our package at this track, made it extra hard. We’re very sad this afternoon and we hope for better in Japan.”
Photo credit: Bridgestone Media
