Valentino Rossi buries Ducati demons at Silverstone

Silverstone has never been a happy hunting ground for Valentino Rossi.

He missed the return to the historic British venue in 2010 with a badly broken right leg suffered in Mugello and then in 2011 and ’12 he endured a miserable British Grand Prix experience on the unruly and unforgiving factory Ducati Desmosedici.

Today’s opening practice back on Yamaha’s YZR-M1 was a more pleasurable experience for the Italian, despite him finishing fifth fastest and over 0.7s away from teammate Jorge Lorenzo’s best pace.

Rossi ended with a best time of 2.03.480, but at least he was more competitive today than previous visits to Silverstone and he said: “In the last two years in this track I suffered very much but today I have a lot better feeling. I am comfortable with the M1 and this is a fantastic track. It is difficult but very funny, very fast and wide.  And these conditions are very positive, especially for England and I hope it stays like this.”

Explaining the difference in performance between the Ducati and Yamaha on the long and fast Silverstone track, Rossi said: “The biggest problem last year was that I wasn’t able to make enough temperature on the front tyre and when I tried to push it was difficult to stop the bike and I had a lot of understeer. The Yamaha is much better in this way and I can used a harder tyre than last year and I feel more confident.”

Rossi didn’t appear overly concerned to be so far off the pace of Spanish teammate Lorenzo, who is currently raging a one-man war against dominant Honda duo Marc Marquez and Dani Pedrosa.

Lorenzo’s best pace of 2.02.734 was mightily impressive but he had run Bridgestone’s soft rear tyre, while Rossi had concentrated on the harder option.

The 34-year-old added: “Jorge used the soft tyre and I used the hard but also he is very good at the beginning of the session to use the extra grip from the new tyre.

He did a very good job. Jorge is very fast in Silverstone. He won here last year and in 2010.  I am coming from the past two years when I was very much behind and I have to improve.”