Mugello MotoGP: Valentino Rossi unfazed by lowly 13th

Valentino Rossi brushed off his lowly 13th place finish in practice at Mugello today after a problematic Ducati debut on home soil.

Two different electrical faults with his new GP11.1 machines this morning in dry conditions left the 32-year-old languishing down in 13th position, his best time of 1.50.780 leaving him a massive 1.793s behind compatriot Marco Simoncelli.

And hopes that he could improve his pace and get in crucial mileage on the new GP11.1 machine, which he rode to fourth place in Assen last weekend, was wrecked by rain ahead of this afternoon’s session.

The track only dried out sufficiently to use slick tyres in the final 10 minutes and home favourite Rossi, who was given a rapturous reception on his Italian debut for Ducati, could only complete six laps.

The nine-times world champion said: “Today was quite useless day for everybody, especially for us because we lost a practice this afternoon where we don’t understand a lot. But this morning we had the problem with both bikes, some small problem about electronics and I did just the first seven laps. And after I start to have problems, I jump on the other bike, but the other bike had a problem after one lap.”

Rossi has previously tested the new GP11.1 chassis and rear suspension system with Ducati’s GP12 1000cc motor at Mugello.

Rossi was delighted with the performance and he said the same positive feeling remained, despite running the bike with the current 800cc motor.

He told MCN: “We confirm also with the 800 that the new rear part of the bike improve a lot the stability and acceleration, but unfortunately we don’t fix the problem of grip on the front, so this is where we have to work more. We need to work on the setting, because with the 800 bike you need to ride in another way compared to the 1000. You need to do more corner speed, so you need a bike with more grip on the edge, compared to the 1000 where you use more the power.”

Rossi was working without legendary crew chief Jerry Burgess today. The Australian flew back to Adelaide earlier this week to be with his wife Claudine, who has been diagnosed with breast cancer.