Yesterday I noted that Valentino Rossi’s performance at Le Mans could hardly have been satisfying to him given his amazingly high standards. Granted he finished 2nd, but to Rossi, that’s just the best of the losers. Losing to his younger team-mate twice ina row must be galling, especially given the well-known antipathy between the two. I questioned whether this might be signalling the winding-down of Rossi’s career; he is, after all, 31 years old.
Well, there’s always two sides to every coin, isn’t there? I’m grateful to a friend on rideontwo for the following statistics.
2004:
rossi wins first race, Gibernau wins the next two.
Crowd reaction: 1st race was an inspired fluke
Rossi finally takes the championship
2008
No wins for Rossi from the first 3 races, while Lorenzo, Pedrosa and Stoner
takes one win each.
Crowd reaction: Move to bridgestones did not work out
Finally Rossi takes the championship
2009
1 win and 1 DNF from the first 5 races, including defeat at Mugello while
Lorenzo takes 2 wins
Crowd reaction: End of Rossi, Lorenzo will take over
Rossi takes the championship
2010
1 win, 1 2nd place and 1 3rd place from the first 3 races
Crowd reaction: End of Rossi, Lorenzo will take over
Observation 1: Lorenzo is definitely stronger this year
Observation 2: Rossi and his crew can take 3-4 races to get the setup right
So, write off Rossi at your peril, it seems.
Incidentally, how stable were the M1’s in the tight chicanes? Those are well-sorted bikes!