Mugello MotoGP: Valentino Rossi too slow on soft tyre

Valentino Rossi conceded he simply didn’t have the same pace as Ducati rivals Hector Barbera and Nicky Hayden on soft tyres after he slumped to a lowly 10th on the grid for his home race in Mugello.

The 33-year-old set a best time of 1.48.502 but finished over 1.2s behind Dani Pedrosa’s pole position time.

But what made Rossi’s fourth row start even harder to swallow was seeing Pramac Ducati rider Barbera clinch his first MotoGP front row start with a lap of 1.47.545 that was a second quicker than the nine-times world champion.

Barbera was third on a version of the GP12 Rossi dismissed last November and the Italian’s factory Ducati team-mate Hayden was just one place further back on the grid in fourth as both took advantage of the extra grip from Bridgestone’s soft rear tyre in an exciting conclusion to today’s qualifying session.

A chatter issue with the soft option slowed Rossi and he told MCN: “While we were using the hard tyre for the race my pace was not so bad. Nothing special but I can stay quite fast and quite constant but the problem was when we put in the soft tyre I can’t improve my performance.

“We don’t understand what happened with the soft tyre because the other Ducatis were able to improve their performance a lot, but for me it was impossible because I had a lot of chatter. I couldn’t go faster and sometimes this happens to us and sincerely we don’t understand why.

“But for tomorrow the race will be hot and long and our pace is not a disaster, so I have to try and start in a good way and stay constant with my pace and recover some positions.”

Rossi said he wasn’t too demoralised by finishing so far down the grid in front of his home crowd because he has got accustomed to qualifying around 10th position.

Today’s result is the third time in the last five races he has qualified 10th and he added: “It is more difficult here in Mugello because it is a great track and there are a lot of fans.

“If you look at the situation clearly and without emotion though this is my position for two years, so it is not a great surprise. The bigger problem is that the other Ducatis with the soft tyre improve a lot but for us it is impossible.”