Valentino Rossi - Photo Credit: Ducati
Valentino Rossi will be keeping his fingers crossed for a wet race on Sunday after setting the fastest time in the wet FP1 session at Silverstone on Friday. The Ducati rider struggled by contrast in the dry second session, finishing eleventh, and says there are a number of areas he is looking to improve on his GP12 should is stay dry.
“This morning went really well. We were fastest, which made us very happy since we had many problems here last year in the wet. So now we're competitive in the wet on this track as well, whereas it was a little harder for us in the dry. That said, I would like to have at least one more dry session because on the one hand there are a couple of things to sort on the bike, which gives us some margin, while on the other hand I'm still not riding this track well. There are two or three spots where my lines aren't efficient, and where I'm still losing some time. It's better than last year, but still not good enough, so I need a little time. We'll see what the weather is like tomorrow. Here, it's the dry conditions that are the unknown, because it always rains!”
Teammate Nicky Hayden also showed impressive pace in the wet, finishing second to Rossi, but didn't suffer to the same extent in the dry. The American was fourth quickest but admits the GP12 will be much more competitive in a wet race.
“We know our bike really likes wet conditions, and the team was obviously quite good this morning. With the rain shower this afternoon, we didn't really get to do a lot of dry laps, as the time went by pretty quickly. The track was actually pretty good as far as grip was concerned, although it was really windy out there. We learned a couple of things, but we still have more work to do. We need to improve the transmission ratios a bit in some spots and work to get some more stability, because the side winds made it very difficult in the high-speed parts.”
