Rossi: I slowed down too much after Marquez crashed
British Grand Prix winner Valentino Rossi has admitted that he backed off too much after his rival Marc Marquez had crashed out at Silverstone, almost falling back into the clutches of the star of the race Danilo Petrucci.
Rossi scored his fourth MotoGP win of the season in wet conditions, extending his points lead over Yamaha teammate Jorge Lorenzo to 12.
“When I work up this morning, I hoped for a dry race,” said Rossi. “Because I didn’t know my performance in the wet. But, from the warm-up, we found a very good setting on the bike and I feel very good, very fast – and I was fastest at the end.
“I’m very happy to win the race, because it was hard. But I had good pace and I could ride well.
“Today, I woke up with very good concentration. I had to fight with Marc, and after Marc crashed, I did one lap very slow – I lost like two or three seconds. But Danilo was one second faster than me, so I lost 4.4, so from that moment I knew I couldn’t relax.
“I hoped that Danilo didn’t risk too much, because it’s his first podium. I had to stay concentrated at the end, because the conditions were more water, so I didn’t want to make any mistakes.
“I rode very smooth, but my bike was great – I enjoyed it very much – so I just had to ride it through the corners.”
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