The end of a very difficult weekend for Rossi

Yamaha rider Valentino Rossi had a good launch off the line, starting from 12th on the grid n this afternoon's rain drenched Japanese Grand Prix and he quickly began his charge.

The Doctor was totally focussed on the job at hand and picked up three positions by the end of the first three laps.

He then spurred on his YZR-M1 to prevent his rivals from clearing off at the front, overtaking Lorenzo on lap 6.

However, his pursuit came to a premature halt when he suffered a crash in turn 8 and was unable to rejoin the race.

“Today was the end of a very difficult weekend,” he said. “Because of the wet conditions I was not very competitive, I was struggling a lot with the wet setting of the bike.”

“ In the race I was trying to follow Aleix Espargaró and I was trying to stick with him, but unfortunately I crashed. Now we'll try to do some good races and it will be important during the next weekends to give Yamaha as much information as possible to improve the bike and to decide on the direction for next year.”