German MotoGP: Valentino Rossi slumps at Sachsenring

Valentino Rossi admitted he could do nothing more after slumping to his worst finish for Ducati in 2011 at the Sachsenring yesterday.

The Italian ended a dire weekend down in a lowly ninth position as his struggle to make this year’s Desmosedici competitive continued in Germany.

Rossi finished a massive 27 seconds behind race winner Dani Pedrosa as he failed to overcome factory Ducati team-mate Nicky Hayden and Suzuki’s Alvaro Bautista after a race long tussle.

The 32-year-old, who started the 30-lap race down in 16th position, said: “The race was better because finally we made a modification to the weight balance to improve the front feeling and finally I feel something on the bike and I improve my potential. I made a quite good race for our situation and I know that I can battle maximum with Nicky and Bautista and I try a lot to beat them.”

Rossi though blamed a gear selector problem for hampering his bid to get the better of Hayden and Bautista.

He said: “Unfortunately I had a problem with the gearbox going from second to third coming out of the last corner. So when I tried to attack Nicky I had a big problem and also Bautista passed me, so I have to arrive behind. I lose the battle but we improve the performance and now we have to think about what to do in Laguna Seca.”

Rossi held crunch meetings with Ducati management last night to discuss their strategy for this weekend’s US Grand Prix in California.

The nine-times world champion is seriously contemplating ditching one of his new GP11.1 machines to run a direct back-to-back comparison with the old GP11 version he last rode at a rain-lashed Silverstone.

He said: “Sincerely I don’t decide yet. I need to understand the situation but it has some positives and some negatives.”

With Rossi languishing way outside of the top six, he missed the opportunity to witness the best race of the season, with Casey Stoner, Jorge Lorenzo and Pedrosa locked in a thrilling three-way dice for victory.

It was the sort of battle Rossi revels in but he did catch a sneak peak on the TV afterwards and he praised former factory Yamaha team-mate Lorenzo.

The Spaniard pulled four more precious points back on Stoner at the final corner with a superb overtake for second and Rossi said: “Lorenzo made a great overtake because it was a great move at the final corner and I think the championship is starting to become more interesting because Lorenzo doesn’t give up. He rides very well and it is not finished.”

For more exclusive news from Ducati, see the July 20 issue of Motor Cycle News.