Valentino Rossi impressed by ‘beautiful’ Circuit of the Americas

Valentino Rossi might have been slowest on the opening day of the private Honda and Yamaha MotoGP test at the new Circuit of the Americas yesterday, but it didn’t stop the Italian from falling in love with the long and technical Texas circuit.

On a first day dominated by a lack of grip, Rossi ended fifth behind Marc Marquez, Dani Pedrosa, Jorge Lorenzo and Stefan Bradl having set a best time of 2.06.507.

The nine-times world champion said: “I really like the track, my first impression is that it is beautiful. It’s very flowing with a lot of fast corners and a lot of change of direction; it is fun on the bike!

“There are three hairpins that are very tight; this is better for Formula 1 overtaking, but for us they are a bit slow.

“In general the track is good. There is some downhill and uphill and first braking zone is very good. We have to understand which tyre to use, but the asphalt surface doesn’t have any rubber on it at the moment so there is not so much grip at the moment.

“The uphill at turn one helps to stop the bike, which is beautiful. For me turn two is the best though and after you enter into the chicane, which is very similar to Silverstone. The straight is very long, which is maybe good for overtaking.

“The city is great, the atmosphere is very good so I think it is a very good place for a race. It’s very important to have this time as the track is so difficult, there are a lot of blind corners where you have to understand where to brake.

“We will continue to work on the line to understand the track and also to increase the rear grip on the bike as we suffer in acceleration.

“The first feeling is positive. It’s important for MotoGP to have a third race in America, we have a lot of good riders from the USA so it’s right to be here.”