Rossi finishes his tests with Ferrari in the background

Valentino Rossi was testing on Thursday and Friday at Mugello with Ferrari. The multiple MotoGP world champion ended Friday in the gravel… probably due to very difficult driving conditions.

The tests were taking place at Mugello, one of Scuderia Ferrari’s circuits. This weekend was rather poor for conducting tests. It was very cloudy on Thursday and it rained from 11 a.m. on Friday. Under these conditions, Rossi was only able to do a few laps. He completed 56 laps, or 257 kilometers, most of them in the morning.

The Italian subsequently recorded slower times than on Thursday; 1:24.04 in the morning, two seconds slower, then 1:33.56 in the afternoon, in the rain. The tests ended a little before 5 p.m. after a Rossi off-track excursion and visibility that was too poor to continue driving.

« The test went quite well », Valentino Rossi nevertheless stated at the end of the day. « Unfortunately, I could only drive a few laps in dry conditions, and that was in the morning. In the afternoon, we barely drove due to the rain, but I was very impressed by the F1 in such conditions. »

« The car is fantastic and overall it was a good test day », adds the Yamaha rider in MotoGP.

Rossi had already conducted tests two years ago to possibly commit to F1. But this week, these tests were carried out just for fun. He therefore wanted to thank the people without whom the two-day test would not have been possible: « I want to thank the team members and of course Luca di Montezemolo and Stefano Domenicali, who have been truly committed over the last two days. I felt like a real Formula 1 driver! »