'Red alert' stops Rossi, 'we have to change a lot'

Valentino Rossi's season-opening Spanish MotoGP ended prematurely on lap 19 of 25 when his Yamaha came to a halt on the home straight.

The Italian, in tenth place at the time, had joined only team-mate Maverick Vinales in selecting the soft rather than hard front tyre for the race.

However, his retirement was due to a mechanical issue.

"The bike had a red alert [on the dash] and stopped. Now they are checking what happened, but we had a technical problem," said Rossi, quipping: "It's a shame because if not I can win, hey?!"

The race had seen a continuation of Rossi's tyre troubles and, while opting for the soft front stood out on paper, it was an inability to make the soft rear (raced by the entire grid) work that held The Doctor back.

"The problem is that for some reason, we are not able to make the tyres work properly. I have a lot of problems," he said.

"Everybody went with the soft rear and if everybody starts with the soft rear, if you start with the medium or the hard, you already have a big disadvantage. Because the other rubber has less grip. So to have a chance, you have to try to work with the soft rear.

"For the front, I don't want to say it was a gamble, but we tried the hard and the soft and the difference was very small. So me and Maverick tried to use the soft. Maybe with the hard we could be a bit faster, but it's not a big problem.

"My problem is coming from the rear. The front doesn't make such a difference.

"But for next week, we have to change a lot, we these problems have happened a lot of times during the weekends and during the races. At this moment, we are not able to fix them."

That's despite having data from the other Factory-spec Yamahas of Fabio Quartararo and Maverick Vinales, who finished first and second on Sunday.

"Yes, we can see their data, and for sure it's always very interesting. But we have this problem with the tyres, and after some laps I am always in trouble. So at this moment their data doesn't save us," Rossi said.

The main talking points of Sunday's race were a debut MotoGP victory for Petronas star Quartararo - set to swap seats with Rossi next season - plus a DNF and arm injury for reigning world champion Marc Marquez.

"It was a bad crash for Marquez at a bad point, it was a big highside. I wish him well," Rossi said.

Does Rossi think that Quartararo and Vinales are now the title favourites?

"I think what we saw in the test was also what we saw in the race; at the moment Márquez, Quartararo and Viñales are the fastest. They are riding better and their speed is another level," Rossi replied.

"Now it depends, we need to understand what happened to Márquez and how much time he needs to recover, because the championship is short, and the races are in a row.  

"It can be a good chance [for Quartararo and Vinales]. But I also don't want to forget Dovizioso, because in every track it's another story and in this year we have a lot of tracks that are good for the Ducati."

Quartararo's team-mate Franco Morbidelli finished in fifth place on the A-Spec Yamaha.