Valentino Rossi doesn’t think he will run with Yamaha’s new chassis in next weekend’s Qatar Grand Prix after trying it out at Jerez on Monday. The Italian completed a strong test as the second fastest rider and after running Yamaha’s updated chassis, doesn’t see enough reasons in favour of running it in the season opener.
“I’m so happy because at the end of today’s session we had some quite good conditions to make some laps in the dry and especially because for us it was very important to try the new chassis. The feeling is generally ok; I was able to be competitive in difficult conditions and I also made good lap times with the used tyre. The new chassis has some good and bad points but I think I will start the season with the one I used yesterday and test this one again during the season. I am happy about the test; I was competitive all three days so I am looking forward to going to Qatar.”
Teammate Jorge Lorenzo was fourth fastest on Monday and believes Yamaha don’t quite have the fastest package heading to Qatar with Honda holding a slight advantage.
“We didn’t think we would practice so much today because the weather was so bad but finally we had two hours to practice and improve some things on the bike. I made a long run that I think was positive to understand the behaviour of the bike with old tyres. We are not the fastest but I think we are very consistent. It’s been a positive test for us to gain some motivation after Austin; that was a difficult three days. It shows that every track is a different world so let’s see what happens in Qatar. There can be a lot of sand on the track there so we’ll see how it is. Like every year you feel a little nervous at the beginning, it’s so important to start in a good way and get some points!”
