Valentino Rossi's "Doctor" nickname couldn't keep him out of the hospital following a crash during the 2014 Aragon GP. Rossi crashed on lap three of twenty after nearly running into the back of Dani Pedrosa and having to ride across the artificial grass outside of the track-side curbing. The grass was wet and put Rossi on his head almost without notice, then Rossi tumbled to a stop in the gravel trap.
Rossi was examined for injuries and is said to have suffered a concussion as his only injury, a point he doesn't either confirm or deny in this interview put together by Yamaha. Regardless, Rossi says he's fine, and ready for the next race. You can take a breath now, Rossi fans.
Full interview plus photos from Rossi's brighter moments in Aragon, below:
Q: Valentino, how are you today?
VR: "I'm fine, everything is ok, and this is the most important thing. I did not injure myself too much except for a big bump to the head. Last night I had a little headache but today I'm fine, I'm 100%. It was a real shame because before the race we made a change that would have helped me a lot; the bike was strong, I was going well, I had recovered the gap in the first few laps and I was there with the leading riders. I felt good and I am sure I could have made a good race, so it was a real shame to fall. In a way I'm almost glad because even though we had a difficult weekend on Sunday we were competitive and this was supposed to be a track that is not very good for us."
Q: Have you watched the race? What can you say about your crash and about your rivals' race?
VR: "Unfortunately, like Iannone I went onto the artificial grass. This is always very dangerous and especially in these cases because the track was still wet from the morning shower and there was nothing to be done. Marc and Dani tried to stay on track on the slick tyres but they took a big risk and in fact they crashed. In my case, if I had gone off track one meter before, I would have just gone wide, instead I touched the grass and I fell."
Q: We have a triple back-to-back ahead of us in Asia and Australia. How do you see the coming races?
VR: "Now there are three races in a row, three races that are all beautiful and I know all tracks very well. I like all of them a lot. I will try to do my best as we have done in the last races."
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