Understeer slows Rossi

Measures introduced to increase Valentino Rossi's corner exit grip have caused more problems than they have solved as the nine-time world champion is now suffering with understeer at the Sepang MotoGP round.

Measures introduced to increase Valentino Rossi's corner exit grip have caused more problems than they have solved as the nine-time world champion is now suffering with understeer at the Sepang MotoGP round.

Rossi is still running with the new swingarm he debuted at Mugello but some more setup changes to increase rear grip have induced understeer on the Desmosedici dropping him to 1.6s off the pace.

“We’ve been a little unfortunate with the weather in recent races. This afternoon it rained right before the session, which made it difficult to work. It’s a shame, as we had two or three things to try with the balance of the bike after we were pretty slow this morning," said The Doctor.

"We had continued working with some changes that we used at Motegi, where they’d helped us to have a little more grip under acceleration. Here, though, they weren’t as effective because they cause a lot of understeer. This afternoon it was important to be able to work because we wanted to return to a more standard setup, like at Aragon and Misano. 

"I tried riding a little in an effort to understand as much as possible, but it’s difficult in these conditions. There’s nothing we can do about it, so we’ll have to wait until tomorrow.”

By MotoGP desk

Image by Ducati Corse