After a tough qualifying session after which he was seventh, Rossi enjoyed a strong start to the race but an early error at Turn 1 saw him drop back to seventh once again. He proceeded to catch and pass rivals one by one, finishing with Repsol Honda Team duo Dani Pedrosa and Marc Márquez.
“I’m more than happy,” Rossi told motogp.com. “I’m very, very, very happy because it was my dream to come back with the Yamaha and be on the podium in the first race. That has been my target since November and I put all my effort into being here.
“It was a difficult weekend, especially yesterday in practice, but I knew I had great pace. I tried to recover at the beginning but I made a mistake and lost time, so I had to have a good second part to the race because I knew I had very good pace. Step-by-step I came back, close to my podium!
“In the end I had a great battle with Marc for second place. I’m so happy: for me, all of my friends and my fans who have had to suffer two difficult season. Also for Yamaha, which starts the season with first and second places – so not bad!”
Rossi now heads to Austin, Texas five points in arrears of championship-leading teammate Jorge Lorenzo, as the pair carry 20 and 25 points respectively.
Source: http://www.motogp.com
