Davide Brivio’s reaction to an eventful weekend

Davide Brivio experienced a first on Sunday when he watched the fourth round of the MotoGP World Championship at Mugello alongside Valentino Rossi from the rider’s hospital bedside in Florence, Italy, instead of from the Fiat Yamaha pit box.

Rossi’s Team Manager Brivio was visiting the World Champion as he recovered from an operation to repair the fractured right tibia he sustained in a crash in practice on Saturday morning.

“It’s a strange feeling… it’s strange for us to not be racing and strange for Vale to watch the race on TV,” Brivio explained to motogp.com after a surreal weekend. “But he is in good spirits and he is willing to work as much as he can to get back as soon as possible. The priority though is to get properly fit and be 100%, I’m sure he will come back very strong.”

Due to it being the early stages of recovery it is still unknown exactly how long Rossi will be out for, but after two races without the Italian the team will have to replace him with a stand-in rider under regulations.

Nothing has been decided as yet, and the prospect of finding a replacement for the 31 year-old is a decidedly odd one for Brivio.

“Now we will have some planning meetings with Yamaha management to discuss what to do under these unusual circumstances, so there is no final decision yet as it is very early at the moment,” said Brivio when asked about a stand-in rider. “We will probably miss the next couple of races because that is allowed under the regulations and then if, as I think, Valentino stays out for more we have to find a replacement.”

“It’s very strange to speak about Valentino’s replacement!” added Brivio. “But we will try to find the best solution we can.”