Rossi foresees another ‘group race - if Marquez doesn’t escape’

When considering his recent travails, Valentino Rossi cut a satisfied figure at the close of Friday’s MotoGP action in Argentina after placing seventh overall on the free practice leaderboard.

Rossi was content with the performance of his Yamaha M1 around the undulating, twisty Termas de Rio Hondo Circuit, even if he was unable to find the optimum setting with Michelin’s softest option rear tyre.

That aspect of performance aside, Rossi feels his pace and consistency is a positive and believes that aside from reigning world champion Marc Marquez, the field is fairly closely packed together, meaning a repeat of Qatar’s pulsating season opener remains a possibility.

“The new surface is a bit better because we have less bumps,” began Rossi, 1.1s off Marquez’s best time of the day in FP2. “I think Michelin was a bit worried about the level of grip because they bring more tyres. At the end the level of grip of the new asphalt is the same as the level of grip with the old asphalt.

“I like the track; it’s in a good condition. I feel comfortable with the bike, especially with the race tyres. I have good pace. I can ride in a good way. Unfortunately I have more problem with the soft tyres. I expected to improve more. I suffer with the soft. This can be a problem to manage in a good way.

“We’ll see for tomorrow about the qualifying because we don’t know our potential, and we don’t know which tyre we’ll use. But from the other side it’s also very early to understand. For sure the lap time drop and the level of grip comes up. It depends if we are strong enough to make the right choice.

“Usually it’s like this, that when the grip improves usually everyone comes closer. But I saw [Marquez] very strong today. For sure he’s the favourite, because he’s the fastest. But anyway, we have to work and I expect another group race if Marquez don’t escape.”

Friday saw Honda dominate, with three riders occupying the first three places. Ducati, on the other hand, faltered with factory riders Andrea Dovizioso (15^th) and Jorge Lorenzo (16^th) some way off the form shown in Qatar.

Does this mean 2018 could be a repeat of ’17, with bike performance varying from race to race? “It’s possible, yes,” said Rossi. “I’m a bit worried. In general I think that we are very similar to Qatar except Ducati. Ducati in Qatar was very strong and here with the same bikes, the same riders, the same tyres, it’s in big trouble. It can be a similar situation to last year with ups and downs for everybody, like last year.”

At one moment in FP2, Rossi pulled into pit lane despite being on a potentially fastest lap, giving rise to suspicions that he was sandbagging in the afternoon. When this was put to the 38-year old, he laughed it off, saying that he was instead following a plan to fit a certain tyre in the limited time available.

“No, because I was with the race tyre. I know I was fast. I want to stay in the top ten because tomorrow if it rains, for sure it’s a big problem. So I don’t know if I have enough time to put the soft, so I stop.

“But unfortunately with the soft I did one lap more or less the same. So if I knew I’d have finished the lap and I could have stayed more in front.”