Rossi searches for missing grip as rostrum drought continues

Valentino Rossi has been left bemused by the lack of rear tyre grip he felt during the British MotoGP race compared to his practice pace as he missed out on the podium to Monster Yamaha team-mate Maverick Vinales.

Having demonstrated promising pace after qualifying on the front row for the first time since the Americas round, Rossi was unable to follow up that feat in the Silverstone race as he had to settle for fourth place almost 11 seconds off Vinales in third place.

Rossi put his drop in speed down to a lack of rear grip in the hotter conditions in the race, a problem which also hampered Pramac Ducati’s Jack Miller and LCR Honda’s Cal Crutchlow, while he felt Vinales avoided suffering the same fate which explained the pace difference between the factory Yamaha duo.

“We are not happy, we are a little bit disappointed,” Rossi said. “We expected to be stronger today to fight for the podium because I started from the front row but in practice I always had a good pace.

“I know that Marquez was a little bit faster so I didn’t expect to battle with him and Rins, I wanted to make my race like Maverick as our pace in practice was very similar.

“But today, unfortunately, I was more in trouble with the rear grip and rear tyre. Already from the beginning my pace was not fantastic and I was not strong enough, not fast enough to stay with the top three.

“In the second half of the race I had to slow down a lot because the tyre damaged a lot so it was a difficult race because we arrived more optimistic about being stronger but in the end we suffered a bit too much.”

Rossi felt his grip woes were due to his own setup rather than any tyre issues, pointing out Vinales didn’t suffer the same fate on the same bike, and is eager to find a solution to avoid a repeat in the future.

“For me I think it is more our problem,” he said. “Unfortunately, compared to Maverick and Quartararo they had more rear grip so it looks like as today was hotter and I had more problems compared to Maverick.

“Yesterday Maverick did a lot of laps with this tyre and the pace was exactly the same for him today. Yesterday I was good, I was like Maverick, but I was in trouble.

“For me it is about us, we need to understand the way how to save the rear tyre more or to suffer less with it.”

With Rossi taking consecutive fourth place finishes, following up the same result from the Red Bull Ring, his run of failing to reach the rostrum has stretched to nine races going back to the Americas MotoGP.

Rossi has also slipped behind Vinales and into sixth place in the current MotoGP riders’ world championship by two points.