Rossi saw a number of races early in the season at Losail. The nine-time Grand Prix World Champion, who emerged from the 12th Qatar Grand Prix, qualified fourth – and left the Doha lap with no points in 16th place after registering his worst qualifying ever ..
It did so against the backdrop of the factory Yamaha pair Maverick Vinales and Rossi’s replacement Fabio Quartararo, who stormed to victory in both races in Qatar on the same 2021 M1 spec. The upcoming European races will be vital for Rossi to extend his career through 2022, while the performance criteria in his Yamaha contract must be met before any talks are ever held.
“I don’t know because a lot changes every year,” said Rossi when asked if he expected his form to improve in the upcoming European races. “Anyway, there are a lot of good tracks for me in Europe. So we hope that we can get stronger when we return to Europe.”
“”[In the race] We found different settings for the electronics that allowed me to stay more consistent with the pace. Unfortunately we didn’t find it until the morning and my position at the start was very bad.
Valentino Rossi, Petronas Yamaha SRT
Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images
“Now it’s difficult because all the riders, all the bikes are strong and are within 10 seconds [from the win] you’re 15 .. we have to see the other circuits from Portimao, we will try to understand if we are more competitive. “
Team-mate Franco Morbidelli had a similarly difficult time in Qatar. He finished the 12th Doha GP last weekend after battling for speed on both laps on his A-spec Yamaha.
The Italian says he returned to a setup base he used for the Doha race in early 2020. However, this revealed tire life issues he was struggling with early last season and left him 12th on the checkered flag.
“We made a big change and went back to a configuration that is similar to the beginning of 2020,” he said. “In the race, the race was definitely better than the last. I was engaged and could fight.
“Starting from 10th position and not having the fastest bike in the pack was really hard to fight with the guys, but at least I had the chance. But the same problems as at the beginning of 2020, so I had Struggling to keep a good pace until the end, I finished the tire too early. “