Rossi Blames Himself for Disastrous French GP

Valentino Rossi had only himself to blame for his disastrous performance during the French GP the past weekend, as the Italian reckoned it was his riding mistake on slick tires that led to a point-less race at Le Mans. Having pitted early in the race for dry tires, the reigning world champion lost grip on his front tire soon after rejoining the semi-wet track, and eventually slid off his Yamaha into the gravel.

Although later managing to return into the race, he had to make some more stops to the pits – including a ride-through – which eventually cost him a place in the points. He finished the race in 16th place and is now one point behind teammate and new championship leader Jorge Lorenzo.

“We started the race without having done a single lap in the wet,” argued Rossi for Italian TV station Italia 1. “By the fourth lap I was having some difficulties already, especially in the right turns the bike was sliding a lot, so I decided to pit. In my opinion it was not a wrong decision, but the problem was that I made a mistake and crashed.”

“It wasn't a wrong idea, because in the same conditions at Motegi (in 2007 Loris) Capirossi managed to win after pitting so early. The problem was that I made a mistake: I lost the front and there was nothing I could do about it,” said Rossi, who reckoned this was a mistake-loaded weekend for his Yamaha team.

“We've made some mistakes in the bike's set-up, the weather never gave us a hand, so I was never as strong as we had expected. We must understand why of course.”

He'll have the best chance of making his comeback two weeks from now, at Mugello, during one of his favorite Grand Pris in the MotoGP.