Q&A: Valentino Rossi - After Crashing at Aragon

The Movistar Yamaha team issued the following press release, containing a brief interview with Valentino Rossi.

In it, Rossi speaks about his crash, the limited after-effects he felt, and looks forward to the upcoming flyaway races at Motegi, Phillip Island and Sepang. You can read it after the jump.

Q: Valentino, how are you today?

VR: “I’m fine, everything is ok, and this is the most important thing. I did not injure myself too much except for a big bump to the head. Last night I had a little headache but today I’m fine, I’m 100%. It was a real shame because before the race we made a change that would have helped me a lot; the bike was strong, I was going well, I had recovered the gap in the first few laps and I was there with the leading riders. I felt good and I am sure I could have made a good race, so it was a real shame to fall. In a way I’m almost glad because even though we had a difficult weekend on Sunday we were competitive and this was supposed to be a track that is not very good for us.”

Q: Have you watched the race? What can you say about your crash and about your rivals’ race?

VR: “Unfortunately, like Iannone I went onto the artificial grass. This is always very dangerous and especially in these cases because the track was still wet from the morning shower and there was nothing to be done. Marc and Dani tried to stay on track on the slick tyres but they took a big risk and in fact they crashed. In my case, if I had gone off track one meter before, I would have just gone wide, instead I touched the grass and I fell.”

Q: We have a triple back-to-back ahead of us in Asia and Australia. How do you see the coming races?

VR: “Now there are three races in a row, three races that are all beautiful and I know all tracks very well. I like all of them a lot. I will try to do my best as we have done in the last races.”

This article was originally published on MotoMatters, and is republished here on Asphalt & Rubber with permission by the author.