Rossi to Start AlgarveGP from Sixth Row of the Grid

06-11-2021

Rossi to Start AlgarveGP from Sixth Row of the Grid

Valentino Rossi and Andrea Dovizioso end Qualifying at Portimão 16th and 21st respectively.

PETRONAS Yamaha Sepang Racing Team’s MotoGP riders Valentino Rossi and Andrea Dovizioso will start the Grande Prémio do Algarve – the penultimate round of the season and second GP of 2021 at Portimão – from 16th and 21st respectively.

Rossi was able to make improvements from the outset of FP3, and steadily reduced his lap time around the Portuguese circuit throughout the session. He ended FP3 17th with a 1min 40.213secs lap, which put him 19th overall. The Italian’s initial banker lap of Q1 placed him seventh on the timing screens early on, before setting a time of 1min 39.604secs on his final flying lap. After ending Q1 in sixth, Valentino will line up 16th on the grid tomorrow.

Team-mate Dovizioso was also quick to start reducing his lap time in FP3, as he also worked on improving his feeling with the bike. The Italian set a best lap time of 1min 40.364secs, placing him 20th in FP3 and 22nd overall. Qualifying saw ‘Dovi’ set a series of solid laps early on and he continued to reduce his lap time throughout the 15 minutes. On his final flying lap he was able to set a time of 1min 39.918secs, which saw him finish Q1 11th and will see him start the race from 21st.

Rossi and Dovizioso will be back out on track at 9.30am local time (5.30pm MYT) tomorrow for Warm Up, with the 25-lap MotoGP getting underway at 1pm local time (9pm MYT).

Valentino Rossi

"Today was a more positive day because I was faster and felt better with the bike, especially with the tyres. The feeling with the tyres felt better today and the track conditions had improved. In FP4 I tested the medium and hard tyres and they weren’t too bad. I had quite a good pace but unfortunately I was unable to progress from Q1 to Q2, because I was not fast enough. My lap time is not too bad though and I will start the race from 16th, which is better than the most recent races and we will see what happens tomorrow. I will be trying to take some points and make it into the top-ten in the race, but it all depends on what type of race we have."

Andrea Dovizioso

"I’m happy because I was able to go faster this morning and also this afternoon, when I was with the group. However, the position isn’t the best so I’m not happy about that. I was able to improve the way that I was braking, which is good, but it is very difficult to stay in the middle of the group. We need something more though to make more gains. My speed is there when I’m in the group, but I think it will be difficult to gain positions and make overtakes tomorrow. I think everybody will have a really good pace, but the race is long and we will see what happens. Our target is always to try to finish in the points."