Franco Morbidelli, the first member of Valentino Rossi's VR46 Riders Academy, had the 'lucky chance' of being directly behind the nine-time world champion as he completed his final MotoGP laps at Valencia. The Yamaha rides lined-up alongside each other on the grid, but while Rossi rose to ninth, Morbidelli slipped to 13th on the opening lap. Morbidelli, who began the season as Rossi's Petronas team-mate, then caught up to The Doctor on lap 9 of 27, with Andrea Dovizioso just behind for three M1s in a row. It looked like Rossi was holding them up, but Morbidelli - struggling for strength in his healing knee - insisted there had been no room to safely attack and that the #46 had then...
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