2013 Assen: Valentino Rossi feels the extra pressure, Cal Crutchlow doesn't

from TWOWHEELSBLOG

Jorge Lorenzo was just seven points behind Dani Pedrosa in the standings before his crash this afternoon ruled him out of the Assen GP.

Valentino Rossi who finished the dry session in fourth and the second one in the wet second admitted after wishing Lorenzo a speedy recovery, that he now feels more pressure and motivation to try to stop Repsol Honda duo Dani Pedrosa and Marc Marquez, in order for them not to take too many points off of his team mate and see if he can finally return to the podium.

“It’s a great pity for Yamaha, for the Team and for him [Lorenzo] as he is fighting for the Championship. I hope that he comes back as soon as possible, hopefully for the next race in Sachsenring. I hope to do a good result because I am now the man of the team for Yamaha, for the Factory team and all the guys. Now there is some extra motivation and some extra pressure because unfortunately Jorge had a big crash and is injured and cannot race, so I will be the only factory Yamaha. I will have to try and make a good result in front of the Hondas for the championship,” said Rossi.

Talking about his first day at a dry and wet Assen Rossi added, “It’s been a positive day for us because in the dry it was not so bad this morning, we continued to work with our new setting and the first impression was positive, although we still have to work to improve. We had something important to try this afternoon in the dry but unfortunately it was wet. Anyway we continued our work in the wet and it was a good practice, we did a good job with our new setting and the bike was also very good in the wet. I improved lap by lap; I had good pace and I was in second position. We have to continue to work in both conditions, everybody knows here in Assen it can be wet or dry.

Yamaha Tech3 rider Cal Crutchlow, who is still in the middle of negotiating with a number of teams next season for a factory bike, also wished reigning MotoGP champion Jorge Lorenzo a quick recovery, but he said that Lorenzo’s crash won’t put him under any extra pressure, because his job is to beat the other riders, including the Yamaha factory riders.

“I will be doing my own job which is to ride for our team and my job is to finish as high up as I can. My job is to also beat the factory Yamahas so if I have a chance, I am going to try and beat Jorge anyway. It changes my position not one bit, makes no difference at all,” said Crutchlow. “It’s unfortunate it has happened to Jorge as he was going to be the man to beat again, for sure. I’m pleased in a way it’s only a broken collarbone because it could have been a lot worse, especially how fast that part of the track is.”

The British rider was second fastest in the morning time session, but dropped down to seventh in the wet, because he opted to sit out the final minutes when a number of riders upped their paces demoting him.

“I am really happy with today. I was second in the dry this morning although I need to improve my pace in the first sector because the gap to Lorenzo in that section was pretty big. The gap of everybody else was pretty big to be fair and Jorge was doing an amazing job. It’s a huge shame that he got injured in FP2 and I wish him a speedy recovery because the Championship is not the same with him not in it. In the rain this afternoon I was very comfortable and I am one of the fastest on track. Before the end of the session I didn’t want to take any risks so I came into the pits and lost a few places. Had I stayed out I am sure I could have been in the top three again but I am happy enough with my performance in both conditions,” continued Crutchlow.