Rossi still feeling effects of shoulde pain
Added on Tuesday, March 29th, 2011 by Carole Nash Editor
Rossi still feeling effects of shoulde pain
Valentino Rossi has revealed that he is still feeling the effects of his shoulder problem after the demands of the Losail circuit in Qatar and has conceded that he won’t be at full fitness this weekend in Jerez.
Rossi has struggled with a shoulder problem for the best part of a year following a motocross accident, hampering his transition from Yamaha to Ducati in the off-season. The former World Champion went under the knife in the winter and has batting through the pain barrier throughout testing, as well as the opening round in Qatar two weeks ago.
But despite spending a fortnight in the gym, Rossi is targeting the Portuguese Grand Prix on May 1 for a full recovery, with the cancellation of the Japanese GP giving him a full month off to recuperate.
“Qatar, with its many hard corner entries and areas where we brake to the right, was difficult for my shoulder,” the Italian claimed. “We’ll see if Jerez is a little easier from that point of view, although I think I’ll still have to grit my teeth for a while.
“Since Qatar, I’ve continued working out in the gym to try and increase my strength and especially my endurance, but after Spain I’ll have almost a month to recuperate more fully, following the postponement of the Japanese Grand Prix.
“From a technical point of view, Jerez doesn’t seem to have been the most favourable track for Ducati, but I’ve always liked it a lot and we’ll definitely have to try and do better than we have until now. For the moment, we’ll continue working on the setup using everything we learned in Qatar, where we found some good solutions for the race.”
