MotoGP: Rossi ‘made a mistake’ in Dutch TT

Valentino Rossi has helped his hands up and admitted that his fall from Sunday’s Dutch TT race at Assen was because of a mistake from the nine-time world champion, caught out with Michelin’s new wet tyres.

Switching to the softer of the two tyre options for the second part of the red-flagged two-part race, he was one of a number of riders caught out by the extra grip from the softer compound.

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“It‘s a great shame considering our great level of speed and competitiveness this weekend with our bike at this track. We could have gotten some important points for the championship after a difficult weekend and we could have taken second place in the championship over Lorenzo, but unfortunately I made a mistake.

“In the second half I pushed too much while I already had a good advantage. On that lap I was trying to push to understand my level. In the second part of the race we started with a soft rear, which provides very good grip, but unfortunately I entered turn ten too fast.”

He also admitted in the aftermath of the race that with a gap of 40 points now to championship leader Marc Marquez, it could be that his hopes of a tenth world title are starting to slip away.

“I think we had a good chance today, but with my mistake I threw away a lot of points. The distance, especially to Marquez, is quite big, but we need to continue working hard like this and try to be competitive also next time.”

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