Disappointing End to BritishGP for PETRONAS Yamaha SRT

29-08-2021

Disappointing End to BritishGP for PETRONAS Yamaha SRT

First MotoGP race at Silverstone in two years ends with Valentino Rossi 18th and Jake Dixon 19th.

Hindered by grip issues in his final British Grand Prix, PETRONAS Yamaha Sepang Racing Team’s Valentino Rossi ended the MotoGP race at Silverstone 18th, with Jake Dixon one place behind in his home GP and premier class debut.

Rossi had a good start to his final BritishGP, holding onto his eighth place off the line. An early charge from the Italian saw him claim two places by the end of the opening lap. However, as the race unfolded Rossi experienced grip issues on the rear medium tyre in the cold conditions. Despite fighting hard to combat them, he was unable to successfully defend his position and crossed the line 18th. Valentino is now 21st in the championship standings with 28 points.

Today saw Dixon make his MotoGP debut in front of his home crowd, with the Brit standing in for the recovering Franco Morbidelli. After a respectable start and showing good pace in the early stages, Jake experienced tricky conditions with a lack of grip in the slightly cooler than expected temperatures at Silverstone. Despite this, Dixon made no mistakes and brought his Yamaha YZR-M1 home in 19th place.

The month of September will see two back-to-back races for the PETRONAS Yamaha SRT squad, with the first of those being the Gran Premio de Aragon (10-12 September).

Valentino Rossi

"It’s a great shame because I felt good with the bike all weekend and I was quite fast. I had a good start and good first laps; I was in a place where I could fight. However, after six laps I had problems with the rear grip, which made me slow. This sometimes happens to us and we tried a lot of things, but in the end we couldn’t fix it. I think if the temperature was a little higher than I could have used the hard tyre and we are normally better on that, but I was cold so we had to use the medium. It’s sad because I wanted to have a decent race here at Silverstone, as there is a big crowd. I want to thank them all for their support. It has been a great pleasure to ride here with so many people here all weekend and thank you everyone for your love over the years."

Jake Dixon

"I felt good all weekend and felt really strong today, especially in morning Warm Up. The pace I had, I felt like I could stay with the guys in the back group. In the race I didn’t have the same feeling and the grip was different. It’s a bit frustrating. It was a great experience, although I wanted more from the race. The team did a great job and we made improvements during the weekend, but the race was out of our hands. I feel like I’ve done a good job; I was two seconds off the top guys in Qualifying after only a small number of laps. I can’t thank the British crowd enough, the cheers were fantastic every lap and it was such a nice feeling. It was so nice to see a packed out crowd at Silverstone and the atmosphere was sensational. It was an incredible feeling."

Razlan Razali

Team Principal

"It has been a very mixed weekend for us. It was a very difficult MotoGP race with rear grip issues for Valentino, which saw him drop from sixth to outside of the points. It was a baptism of fire for Jake, but I’m sure it was a nice experience to be riding in the MotoGP class for the first time at his home Grand Prix.

"The next round of the season is in Aragon, so we will work hard and try to keep the motivation high to continue to do better."