Movistar Yamaha MotoGP team’s Valentino Rossi had a more difficult weekend at the Austrian GP, but the Italian home a solid haul of points and retains his fourth position in the Championship standings – only nine points off teammate Maverick Viñales.
With seven riders in the initial podium fight at the Red Bull Ring, Rossi was battling at the front in the first part of the race, before running into rear grip issues and then making a mistake on the brakes - costing him time as he headed into the run off at Turn 1. Back on track, he eventually crossed the line at the chequered flag in seventh.
Valentino Rossi, P7: “Today the problems started after ten or twelve laps. Unfortunately, we stressed the rear tyre too much, so the rear tyre dropped a lot and we lost a lot of performance and speed. From that moment on it was very difficult to control the bike and I also made a mistake on the brakes. I didn’t have the pace in the second half of the race, I suffered too much from a lack of grip. It’s a shame because we worked a lot, but it looks like it's the same problem as we had in Jerez and Barcelona. When we use the rear tyre too much, the bike becomes slower and more difficult to ride in the second half of the race. For sure we have to work a lot mechanically and also on the electronics to improve this problem”.