Brno MotoGP: Valentino Rossi puzzled at dismal fifth

Valentino Rossi was puzzled at his failure to come close to challenging for a podium finish in the Czech Republic MotoGP race at Brno.

Optimistic that he could contend for a second successive podium in his third race since returning from the broken right leg he suffered in Mugello, the 31-year-old was woefully of the pace and limped home in a distant fifth position.

The nine-times world champion was a massive 17.9s behind runaway winner and Fiat Yamaha team-mate Jorge Lorenzo and after registering his worst result of the season he said: “We are really disappointed because we had hoped to do a good race and I was confident that I could challenge at the front.

“It seemed everything was right and yesterday we had a good pace but today we just weren’t as fast and I couldn’t stay with the leaders. We need to understand what went wrong in the race because on Friday and Saturday I was very fast with the same bike and tyres.

“I tried to ride like in practice but there was no way I could do it. I had a similar problem in Laguna Seca at the beginning of the race when there was some confusion amongst the riders and I wasn’t strong enough.

“But after seven or eight I came back to my Saturday pace and reached the podium in Laguna, which was my potential. 

“I expected a potential of 57.5 in Brno but I did 58.5 in the entire race and it wasn’t all because of my physical condition. The tyres are the same and the bike is the same, so there is no reason to lose one second from Saturday to Sunday.”