A slippery Gran Premi Monster Energy de Catalunya race resulted in valuable championship points for Valentino Rossi after a challenging weekend at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya.
Rossi had a good opening lap, moving up one place to twelfth but had to give back the place as he got into a fight with Johann Zarco.
The Doctor progressed to tenth by passing Scott Redding and making a brilliant move at the start of lap 4, overtaking Jack Miller and Hector Barbera at the same time.
Having breached into the top-10, the Italian set a personal best lap in his attempt to cut through the field. Finding himself behind Zarco on lap 5, he put his head down and overtook the fellow Yamaha rider less than a lap later. With Aleix Espargaró retiring from the race, Rossi was lying in eighth, but a mistake on lap 10 saw him move back behind Zarco.
Rossi was eager to follow the Frenchman past Jorge Lorenzo and Alvaro Bautista, but suffered a sudden tyre drop and was unable to keep in touch with the battle for sixth.
A late crash by Danilo Petrucci saw him cross the line in eighth place, 20.821s from the front.
“I was really sad, because I won here last year and also it is one of my favourite tracks,” he said after the race. “We knew it was going to be a difficult weekend, as we had some problems during the practice sessions due to the temperature of the asphalt and the level of grip."
"The race wasn‘t positive, but I did my best to take as many points for the championship as possible. Tomorrow we will have an important test, where we will try many things, so this is positive. I hope that for the next two back-to-back races we will be able to return to the front.”
