You’d expect that Valentino Rossi would want this weekend’s Estoril GP to be wet (forecasts do predict rain) to take advantage that his shoulder should be only 90% fit (with another third of the grid still nursing injuries) and his best result after the Jerez GP after what is now known and forever as ‘The Incident’ was a fifth place, instead the Italian insists that he wants it to be sunny and dry so he can better understand his GP11.
“With the postponement of the Japanese GP, we’ve had three weekends without a race, so I was able to unplug for a while following the GP12 test at Jerez, although I continued training to help my physical recovery.
Now we go to Estoril, a track I quite like, where we’ll continue working on the GP11’s setup, particularly during the test on Monday.
The conditions are often unpredictable at Estoril because the area is very windy and close to the ocean, making for variable weather, especially in the spring.
Anyway, although we saw at Jerez that we’re already competitive in the wet, we’re hoping for sun in Portugal so that we can make the most of our time on the track.
We still have to understand the bike better, and to work on the setup with the goal of being faster in the dry in time for the most intense phase of the season, when we’ll have six races in eight weeks starting in June.
” Former team mate Jorge Lorenzo has won at Estoril for the past three seasons.