Third Row Start for Rossi after Successful Qualifying Day at Silverstone

28-08-2021

Third Row Start for Rossi after Successful Qualifying Day at Silverstone

Valentino Rossi will line up eighth on the grid for the BritishGP; Jake Dixon 21st in first MotoGP Qualifying.

PETRONAS Yamaha Sepang Racing Team’s Valentino Rossi will start his final BritishGP from the third row of the grid, after ending Qualifying eighth. Jake Dixon will start his debut MotoGP race, and home Grand Prix, from 21st.

A strong performance in FP3 saw Rossi hold onto his top-ten place overall for the majority of the session. Improving his time to 1min 59.553secs, only 0.265secs off the top, the Italian ended FP3 seventh and secured a place in Q2 for the fifth time this season. Valentino continued this good form, posting the fourth fastest time in the early stages of Qualifying. Setting a 1min 59.531secs lap on his final flying lap, Rossi ended Q2 with the eighth fastest time - his second best qualifying result of the year - to secure a third row start for tomorrow’s race.

Dixon had a good start to FP3, immediately lapping within two tenths of his best time from yesterday. Unfortunately a Turn 16 crash kept him off track for 20 minutes of the session. Unable to improve upon his Friday time, Jake ended FP3 21st. The Brit continued to impress in his first MotoGP Qualifying session, reducing his lap time from yesterday around the Silverstone Circuit by nearly two seconds. Ending Q1 with a 2mins 0.869secs lap, Dixon will start his home race from 21st.

Rossi and Dixon will be back out on track for Warm Up tomorrow at 9.30am local time (4.30pm MYT), with lights out for the 20-lap MotoGP race at 1pm local time (8pm MYT).

Valentino Rossi

"I have a better pace here, compared to Qatar where I was fourth on the grid, as I was inside the top-ten throughout Free Practice today. I feel good with the bike, so now we just need to make the right tyre choice for tomorrow’s race. It’s hard to predict what the feeling will be like in the race, as sometimes you can be strong during practice but slower in the race. Hopefully I will continue to feel good tomorrow. Recently my starts have not been the best, so we need to work on that and make sure I stay in the pack during the opening laps. We will then see what our pace is like; I’ll give my maximum though and try to stay inside the top-ten."

Jake Dixon

"It is difficult because you can’t take your time to get used to the bike, like you could at a test, and there’s a lot to learn in a short amount of time. I felt good today though. In FP3 I unfortunately crashed and had to use the second bike, which didn’t have the same settings. It wasn’t too bad and I knew that I had more pace than what I’d shown. In FP4 I made another step forward, so I was really happy with that. In Qualifying I was able to reduce my time by another 1.3 seconds. I think I could have done more but I made some mistakes on one lap. The race will be difficult because I’m still learning every lap, but I can’t wait. The crowd is incredible out there and the support is unbelievable – it’s just so nice to be doing this at home."