Shoots of recovery for Rossi
Eleventh may not seem like much to shout about . But the French Grand Prix was comfortably Valentino Rossi ’ s best weekend of 2021 , and offered some shoots of recovery to the 42-year old undergoing the worst spell of his career .
The official one-day test that followed the Spanish Grand Prix offered Rossi the chance to try a host of new items . “ We modify the setting of suspension , we have different forks , we change the weight balance of bike ,” he said . “ We try also a different carbon swingarm which is good . All these things help us especially in braking and in entry . It can bring more speed in the corner without running wide and I feel better on the bike .”
Rossi was strong in wet conditions ( he placed seventh in a wet warmup ) and had respectable pace in the dry , a big improvement from his desperate Jerez race . His eleventh place in mixed conditions didn ’ t suggest as much . “ The result is nothing special . But it remains a better weekend , we confirmed the improvement in the test in Jerez . I can fight for stay in the top ten but in the end the race was like this .”
Finland off , Austria doubles up
The first Finnish Grand Prix since 1982 has been pushed back yet another year . The event at the all-new Kymi Ring was supposed to stage its inaugural World Championship event on 11 July , but the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic , and the resulting travel complications entering Finland resulted in its cancellation .
Marquez overcompensating
On Saturday morning at Le Mans , Marc Marquez topped his first MotoGP™ session since he suffered a career threatening injury at last year ’ s Spanish Grand Prix . The wet conditions experienced in FP3 were kinder to the eight-time champion , still suffering from a lack of upper-body strength .
“ When I speak about muscles , I mean all the arm is close to 80 %. But some are 50 %. It depends on the movement ,” he said of the recovery of his right arm and shoulder . “ I ’ m struggling more , especially the back of the shoulder . If you remember , 2 winters ago I had an operation on the right shoulder . That injury still is not 100 % recovered because there was some damage to a nerve in the shoulder .”
That means Marquez is still struggling in long right corners , “ like corner 1 , corner 5 , corner 8 … But then in the left corners I ’ m feeling really good , normal .” Yet that creates its own problems : “ It ’ s where I want to gain time and I push too much . If you check , two times in Jerez , one time here , I crashed in a left corner , because it ’ s where I feel the most confident and I try to take all the lap time there .”
In its place , Austria ’ s Red Bull Ring will host a double header on a new date of 8 August for the Styrian Grand Prix , as well as the Austrian Grand Prix , which sticks to its original date of 15 August . But riders have been informed the high-speed track ’ s turn three will not be modified after riders voiced concerns over its safety in the wake of Franco Morbidelli and Johann Zarco ’ s terrifying 140mph collision last August .
“ I would have preferred a chicane between Turn 1 and Turn 3 , something to slow it down a little bit , but we were not able to react to that in time ,” said Jack Miller .
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