MotoGP Europe: What went wrong with Valentino Rossi
Valentino suffered his 5th DNF of the season, his fourth in a row in 2020 at the EuropeanGP.
The last time Valentino Rossi scored 5 DNF’s in a single season was 1998, yet here he is in 2020, having the worst season of his career, scoring 5 x DNF’s and missing two races due to a positive COVID-19 test, it has been a complete and utter disaster for Valentino Rossi, made even worse on Sunday when his Yamaha broke down on him.
It was not clear at the start what caused his bike to break down with no obvious problems, no missing wheels or smoke billowing out of the bike or oil everywhere, nor was it on fire (thankfully), therefore from an outsiders perspective, it is very hard to work out what went wrong with Rossi’s M1.
We spoke to a rider who we will not name who said, “It was an electrical problem, when I was in pit lane they could not get the bike started, then they changed something and it was working again, they changed something electrical.” This was confirmed by Rossi himself who said, “I had no power, I do not think the engine was broke, they have checked and it may be something electrical.”
Reports from the paddock have come out saying it was a fuelling issue, Rossi himself confirmed it was not an engine issue and the bike just stopped, this is incredibly plausible, however it is more than meets the eye with Yamaha more than likely withholding information to save embarrassment at yet another catastrophic failure.
Rossi’s goal was to complete the race, something he has struggled to do this season, saying, “It is a great shame for me, because I wanted to complete the race so it is a great shame as I had to stop after a few laps.
It is hard at Yamaha, last time we won with Franco but here we are struggling but here we are in trouble, it is like we do not understand the tyres, the bike is also slow on the straight.”
This ties in with Maverick Vinales also confirming that Yamaha are having a tough time, they have gone from black to white this season, a 1-2-3 in Jerez, qualifying in a 1-2-3-4 at Misano to having zero Yamaha’s in the top 10 in the European GP, the worst part is, only 14 riders finished!
Featured image – www.motogp.com
