Rossi reflects on qualifying disaster: “I had no feeling”
Valentino Rossi has blamed a lack of feeling in his front tyre on a wet-but-drying track for his uncompetitive showing in Phillip Island qualifying, his worst Saturday performance in five years.
Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images
The Italian suffered a disastrous Saturday in Australia, failing to make the automatic Q2 cut after ending up 12th in third practice, and then ending up only fifth fastest in Q1.
As a result, Rossi will start 15th for Sunday’s race, his worst qualifying performance since lining up 17th for the German Grand Prix in 2011.
His factory Yamaha teammate Lorenzo didn’t fare much better, making it out of Q1 but ending up slowest in Q2 to line up on 12th on the grid.
Looking back on a nightmare session, Rossi said his woes were rooted in a lack of feeling in the front tyre in the treacherous conditions.
“It was a very difficult day,” he recalled. “We suffered a lot, I was never strong.
“Also in the wet, I don’t expect because yesterday I was not so bad in the wet. I felt quite good with the bike, I was able to do quite good laps.
“But today we had a different condition, everything was wrong. We did also some mistake with the tyres, but the problem is I was always slow, no feeling.
“Looks like we suffer very much in these conditions – risking a lot but going very slow, so it’s very frustrating because I cannot ride at the limit.”
He added: “We are a lot in trouble with the front tyre. We are not able to get it up to temperature, me and Lorenzo. In Q2, he didn’t have the feeling.”
Mix-up in the pits
Having made a lengthy trip to the pits late in Q1 to equip an intermediate rear tyre on a drying tack, Rossi said he had hoped his second bike was ready with intermediates front and rear.
But, when it wasn't ready, he had to settle for only one intermediate tyre.
“When I started Q1, it was eight degrees and a lot of water, so the problem was to stay out with that bike and try to make the best,” explained the 37-year-old.
“But unfortunately it came dry very quickly, I stopped and I hoped I had the other bike with the intermediate [front], but it was not ready.
“Maybe with the two intermediate [tyres] I can improve the laptime, but unfortunately it was like this.”
Additional reporting by Oriol Puigdemont
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