Valentino Rossi made an excellent start from sixth on the grid, initially jumping three places to slot in behind Marquez in third position. Still struggling to find an optimum set up for the first few race laps, the nine-time world champion then slipped back to sixth before mounting his fight back. With 12 laps to go Rossi was swapping positions in a close fight with German rider Stefan Bradl, emerging the victor two laps later and then hunting down Alvaro Bautista in fourth. The battle with Bautista was to begin with just three laps remaining and continue to the finish line, Rossi’s race craft eventually giving him the upper hand and earning him fourth place at the flag.
Valentino Rossi
"For me this result is a bit more positive than in Brno. Every time I come here I have a bad result, this time we worked in a different and better way. The fourth place is better than in Brno, but it is still a fourth place. Unfortunately I made a good start but in the first laps the other guys between the second and seventh lap were a lot faster than me, but the second half of the race was not so bad. We will continue to work hard, we never give up and are not so far now. We have a constant pace and we are nearly there but we need to go a bit faster, we still have to work to improve our pace. We made a modification between warm up and the race that gave me a better feeling with the front."
Yamaha Factory Racing Press Release
