Daily Times

PARIS: As one of MotoGPs two great surviving stars unexpectedly blazed again last weekend, the other seems to be struggling against the inevitable slide into darkness, but the Dutch Grand Prix on Sunday could offer Valentino Rossi hope. As the chequered flag fell at the German Grand Prix last Sunday, it seemed inevitable that six-time world champion Marc Marquez had taken it. He might have missed a year after an awful arm injury, but he had won the last 10 times he had raced at the Sachsenring. If the same logic applies at Assen, then perhaps Rossi, who has won 10 times at the track, will produce an even bigger surprise. The Italian has won one more world title than Marquez, but at 42 he is struggling to outpace father time. Demoted to the Yamaha satellite team SRT this season, the Italian has not finished better than 10th in the eight races. He limped in 14th in Germany and sits 19th in the rider standings. “We need to figure out what happened in Germany and work well to make some improvements before we are back on track this weekend,” Rossi told the Yamaha web site. Assen’s ‘Temple of Speed’ has long suited Rossi.

His last victory, back in 2017, came at the Dutch circuit. That triumph, coming 20 years and 311 days after he won the 125cc race in the Czech Republic in 1996, gave him the longest winning Grand Prix career. “Assen is a great track for me,” Rossi said. “I like the layout a lot, it is very flowing. It is somewhere I really enjoy and you always feel some great emotion when riding there. “So we need to stay positive, concentrate on the final round before the summer break and achieve a good result in Assen.” SRT announced on Wednesday that their other regular rider, Franco Morbidelli, would miss the race after injuring a knee training on Tuesday. The Italian will be replaced by American Garrett Gerloff. Marquez meanwhile downplayed surging expectations.