Saturday‘s qualifying session at Silverstone was a challenging outing for all the MotoGP™ riders in the wet but Movistar Yamaha MotoGP legend Valentino Rossi rode well to secure a solid second place on the grid.
Rossi was eager to start off the session, to avoid the traffic and the spray in the tricky conditions and headed out of pit lane early.
The worsening track conditions caught out various riders, but the Doctor managed to stay out of trouble, despite continuously pushing. With two minutes still on the clock, he had just enough time left for two final attempts, but one was all he needed to drop a strong 2'20.263s for second place on the grid, 0.998s off pole.
Valentino Rossi (P2): “When we have these conditions it‘s always difficult, but we were lucky that it was also wet in free practice so we could improve the bike and make a better setting and balance. In free practice I wasn‘t very confident, but the bike improved a lot so I felt good for qualifying and I was able to push. Starting from second place is very important for tomorrow‘s race, but now we have to wait for the conditions, because on the dry we aren‘t very strong. So now we need to try and be strong in the dry. Now we have an evening to work on it, and I hope it's dry in the morning and in the race because I think the tyre choice is still not made for a lot of riders.”