Rossi needs a month, gets a week.
After riding through the pain of a fractured hand and foot to finish eighth at Assen on Saturday, MotoGP World Champion Valentino Rossi has only one week to recover further before this weekend's British Grand Prix.
The Italian left Assen on Saturday evening with his physiotherapist Marco Montanari, who will remain by his side for the rest of this week as he tries to recover as much strength as possible before the crucial ninth round of an intriguing championship.
Rossi has won seven times in all classes at Donington Park, one of his favourite MotoGP circuits, but another trip to the top step of the podium will be a huge challenge. However, with the Camel Yamaha star now a worrying 46 points behind Assen winner Nicky Hayden, race victories are exactly what he needs.
"We have a lot of work to do to improve the situation with my wrist and try to reduce the swelling and heal the bone as much as possible," explained Rossi. "It would be better to have a month now to recover but we are racers and we have to go straight to the next race, which is a pity. Anyway I hope we can improve it as much as possible so that I can ride well at Donington. For sure I won't be at full fitness, but we have five days to improve. Colin showed that the bike is working really well so hopefully it will be like this at Donington also for both of us.
"Donington is like a second home grand prix for me and I hope the fans give me all the usual support because I need all the help I can get right now. It has been one of my favourite tracks ever since I rode the 125 there for the first time in 1996 and I have a lot of good memories - especially my first win with the 500 in 2001 and victories with Yamaha for the last two years. It's going to be a big challenge for me to stand on the top of the podium on Sunday, but as long as my hand continues to improve throughout the week, then I think we can try!" he vowed.
"Hopefully this week before Donington will be enough time for Valentino to make a decent recovery and we all hope to see him in better shape when he comes into the garage for practice on Friday morning," added team director Davide Brivio. "Assen was a big disappointment for us in lots of ways but with Valentino in better shape and Colin in good form we have a chance to put things right at a circuit both riders like and in a country where they are both very popular.
[Quelle:
crash.net ]
