If stuff in Rossi's biog is anything to go by, I'd say he's held back deliberately on the 2nd day so as to make other teams feel that they're doing enough and so they won't try harder to beat him. He says they/he did it in recent years...
I felt the move on Sete in Race 1 was fine. If anyone was at fault it was Sete, for trying to take a line that wasn't available to him because another rider had just overtaken him and was in the way. Rossi was part way past Sete before Sete turned. You leave the door open for someone, they go through, you have to let them go, not ride into the side of them.
With Melandri, Rossi chanced it and hoped Melandri had gone wide and tried to get round the inside. Rossi's fault for trying to take a line that wasn't available to him. Mind you, a split second later and it would have been Melandri's fault for taking out Rossi. I can't think of any other racer who would have braked as late as Melandri there - he's the only person who often outbrakes Rossi into bends and Rossi should have known better.
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