MotoGP: Rossi and Viñales still at a loss in the rain

Valentino Rossi and Maverick Viñales are still at a loss to find any improvement in form after yet another day of wet weather at the Japanese Grand Prix. The Movistar Yamaha duo struggled for rear grip throughout the day, and will now start tomorrow’s race from 12^th and 14^th on the grid.

And despite a good start to the day for Rossi that saw him finish free practice three in fifth place overall, the Italian confessed that he’s no closer to being able to convert that pace into consistent wet weather form.

“This morning we started well, because with the full wet session, like yesterday, we improved the setting of the bike a lot. I was quite fast and it was good, but unfortunately with less water on the track we suffered a lot. Also for this reason we risked using the slicks, because the track was becoming dryer. We were hoping it would dry quickly, but unfortunately it was still too wet.

“We have to wait to see what the conditions will be like tomorrow. With more water on track we can be quite strong, with less water we’re struggling. The crash in FP4 was quite big, but I was lucky. No problems, just a little bit with the finger, but the important thing is that the leg is OK.”

And while it was a bad day for Rossi, it was even worse on the other side of the garage with teammate Viñales unable to even progress out of qualifying one.

“I had the same problem today as I had all year in the wet: I had a lot of spin and couldn’t ride the bike the way I wanted to in these conditions. We are working hard and giving it everything. The qualifying result is what it is and now we focus on working for tomorrow. We know where we’re losing time, but it’s difficult to fix it in just one weekend. We are going to do our best, we’ll try to improve for tomorrow and score as many points as possible.”