Rossi runner-up at Monza.
MotoGP world champion Valentino Rossi saw his hopes of winning a third Monza Rally title in a row end with a mistake on day tw🗹o, but he still charged up the order to fini꧙sh in second position.
Driving a Ford Focus WRC car, Rossi was leading the rally heading into Saturday's second stage - the third🌌 stage of the rally - when a mistake cost the eight-time world champion 27 secoཧnds.
Rossi dropped to🅰 sixth in the overall standings as a result, but had climbed to fourth by the end of the day.
MotoGP world champion Valentino Rossi saw his hop🐈es of winning a third Monza Rally title in a row end with a mistake on day two, but he still charged up the order to fi🎶nish in second position.
Driving a Ford Focus WRC car, Rossi was lꦍeading the rally heading into Saturday's second stage - the third stage of the rally - when a mistake cost the eight-time world ch𒈔ampion 27 seconds.
Rossi dropped to sixth in the overall standings as a result, but had climbed to fourth by the end of🧜 the day.
Victory in both of Sunday's stages then enabled The Doctor to leapfrog Alessandro Caffi (Peugeot) and Piero Longhi (Subaru) on th🦩e very last stage. Rossi thus finished second overal♊l, 20.3sec behind event winner Rinaldo Capello (Ford) and 3.6sec ahead of Longhi.
In the 'Master Show' competition, which features a one-on-one knockout for﷽mat, Rossi reached the final, but was beaten by Lo𒐪nghi.
"Unfortunately the eꦿrror yesterday caused me to lose a lot of time," said Rossi, who won four of the eight stages. "I'm sorry about that, because we had the potential to win. However, today [Sunday] went well, I won both stages and I got to the final of the Masters Show, where Longhi was just too quick for me. That's ok though; for next year we'll sign up again to win the MotoGP world championship and finish second in the Monza Rall🤡y!"
Rossi's friend and newly crowned 250cc world champion Marco Simoncelli finished sixt🍨h in the S20 class (and 27th overall). Rossi's team manager Davide Brivio was one place behind in the same class, with Rossi's team-mate Jorge Lorenzo three places further back in S20 (and 38th overall). All three were driving Fiat Punto S2000s. Meanwhile, Valentino's father Graziano drove a Ford Mustang to twelfth in the GT c✃lass (78th overall).
Rossi is scheduled to test a Ferrari Formula O🦹ne car later this week while his next rally outing will be at Wales Rally GB, the final round of the 2008 World Rally Championship, from December 5-7.
2008 Monza Rally:
1.Rinaldo Capello/Luigi Pirollo Ford Focus WRC 1hr 11min 11.5sec
2.Valentino Rossi/Carlo Cassina Ford Focus WRC +20.3sec
3.Piero Longhi/Luca Cassol Subaru Impreza WRC +23.9sec
Peter has been in the paddock for 20 years and has seen Valentino Rossi come and go. He is at the forefront of the Suzuki exit story and Marc 📖Marquez’s injury issues.
