Rossi and Dovizioso set for second GP at Misano

This weekend will be the final home GP for Valentino Rossi and the second for Andrea Dovizioso in PETRONAS Yamaha SRT colours

PETRONAS Yamaha Sepang Racing Team will be back in action this weekend at Misano World Circuit Marco Simoncelli for the Gran Premio Made in Italy e dell’Emilia Romagna, which will be the final home GP for Valentino Rossi – after a racing career that spans 26 years – and the second for Andrea Dovizioso – since he made his MotoGP return.

After ending the AmericasGP inside the points last time out, Rossi will be aiming to end the last home race of his career on a high and continue to make improvements for the final Grands Prix of 2021. As the scene of three wins, six podium finishes and one pole position in the premier class, home-hero ‘Vale’ will be hoping to give his yellow-clad home crowd something extra to cheer about this weekend.

Team-mate Dovizioso, who is also enjoying his second home race this weekend, will be returning to the scene of his PETRONAS Yamaha SRT debut and hoping to continue his points scoring ways, after ending the race at COTA 13th. Although conditions might be different to what the Italian faced at the SanMarinoGP and two-day Misano test a month ago, ‘Dovi’ is looking forward to getting back on his bike and seeing what improvements he has made since then.

Free Practice 1 will get underway at 9.55am local time (3.55pm MYT) on Friday for Rossi and Dovizioso, with Sunday’s 27-lap MotoGP race bringing the EmiliaRomagnaGP to a close at 2pm local time (8pm MYT).

Valentino Rossi

It’s been good to have these two weeks without races, as we had some busy times – including travelling to the USA, which was a really demanding race. During this time I’ve been training hard at home to make sure we can face the final three races of this season in the best physical condition. This second race in Misano will be tougher than the first one because it is likely to be cooler than one month ago. We need to work to give our best, try to be a bit faster than in the last races and fine-tune the settings to be more competitive. The previous race in Misano was already a really emotional moment for me and, of course, this one will be a special race at home and I really hope the Italian fans can enjoy it.

Andrea Dovizioso

I think it will be very hard to be competitive enough to make it into the top-ten, but the improvements we have made since the first Misano race are huge. I’m really happy about that. After a good experience at that race and also in America, I’m looking forward to going back to Misano. This weekend will be a good opportunity to compare the bike and where we are now to where we were one month ago at the same circuit, although the conditions might be different. I think this will help me to be faster and I’m aiming to stay within the group. I’m really looking forward to being more competitive and fighting with the other riders.