PHOTOGRAPHY BY GOLD & GOOSE
MISANO, ITALY, SEPT. 10—Tomorrow the heavyweight fight between Valentino Rossi and Jorge Lorenzo for the shot at MotoGP Championship resumes on Rossi’s home turf—the Misano World Circuit.
Between the pair, they have won the last six races at Misano, begging the question are we in for an epic battle between the Movistar Yamaha teammates?
“The three times that I won I always fight with Jorge [Lorenzo],” Rossi said. “When he won, I was more behind, but yes it can be [an epic battle]. We have a very different way to race, between me and Jorge. Usually when he’s strong he’s very fast from the first corner and after is difficult to try to fight. But yes can be the right track for a good battle.”
“I don’t know why I like more when one wins with more advantage, than the races when second is close to the winner,” Lorenzo said with a laugh. “But I hope this time can happen.”
Lorenzo cautioned that it wasn’t going to be easy though and that although it’s considered a Yamaha track, you can’t count out Marquez.
“First thing again, is going to be difficult because Marquez for sure is going to be very strong,” Lorenzo said. “Valentino here is always very fast, won many times and it is his home track. But this is one of my favorite tracks and I’m very motivated to start and to be very quick and to make a very good setup for the bike. So, could happen. I will fight to the end and I think I’m prepared to do it.”
Marquez is a contender, but is more of an outsider looking in—77 points behind Rossi—so it was asked if Rossi and Lorenzo looked at the Repsol Honda rider as a referee in their title fight.
“I think that Marc [Marquez] is not the referee, he’s a rider that wants to win all the races, or when is possible,” Rossi said. “After Silverstone the situation changed a little bit because Marc now, is not over yet, but is a lot more far in the standings. So the situation is a bit different. It looks like the championship is more between me and Jorge [Lorenzo]. And for sure race-by-race I think that the situation will become more difficult, more hard because after 12 races just 12 points; 12 points is nothing. For sure race by race we will have to concentrate more on the fight for the championship than for win the race.”
Lorenzo agreed.
“I don’t see Marc as a referee, I see him more as a rider. Especially because he’s not in black like the referees,” Lorenzo said. “He’s a rider who’s going to try to win all the races. And for sure if he finish between us, like he did at Brno, he will make a big impact in the points championship. If I want to recover Valentino [Rossi] the ideal situation is that I finish first and Marc stay in second place and Vale third. But I’m sure Marc is going to try and win all the races and he’s not going to help anyone.”
Marquez also acknowledged that it is a tough ask to fight for the title at this point, but he’s not giving up.
“After Silverstone, the option for the championship has not gone completely, but now is really, really difficult,” Marquez said. “But okay, I think that we tried. The feeling with the bike wasn’t the best, but was time to take the risk. We did a great race. The most important thing is that we were really fast in dry conditions.”
Since last year’s San Marino Grand Prix, the Misano Circuit was repaved in order to resolve the complaints from riders. Both Rossi and Marquez have had the opportunity to throw down some laps on the new surface—Rossi on an R1 and Marquez on his prototype machine.
“When I came here to train it was about physical training,” Rossi said. “The bike is very different, also the braking, the lines are so different. Like Marc I tried the track with the new asphalt, but I think that anyway tomorrow everybody will try and everybody will understand very quick the way. I think that between me and him is not a big difference.”
Marquez also felt that it wasn’t much of an advantage.
“For me I think that, yeah you can have a small advantage, but maybe in FP1,” Marquez said. “Already in FP2 everybody is really fast. For example last year I did a test before Brno and then was the worst race of the season. So this doesn’t mean that it will be a great weekend for us. Of course I hope that it will be a great weekend, but will be difficult to stop both Yamaha, but we will try to push to be there on the top.”
Lorenzo, who hasn’t had the track time, weighed in on the matter as well.
“If the race would be with R1s, would be a bigger advantage,” Lorenzo said. “Obviously is better to have the opportunity to train with any kind of bike, maybe not with scooter, but an R1 is quite close to the performance of MotoGP. But I don’t think it’s going to be a big advantage. We will see. I think Marc has the better advantage to have this test with real MotoGP bike.”
