Rossi to test new frames after troubled Barcelona race

Yamaha will test two new frames at Barcelona on Monday, which Valentino Rossi hopes will help cure the trouble that plagued his Catalan Grand Prix.

Rossi and Yamaha teammate Maverick Vinales struggled throughout the weekend at a low-grip Barcelona, finishing eighth and 10th and more than 20 seconds behind winner Andrea Dovizioso.

Vinales was perplexed by his latest round of trouble, having also suffered at Jerez, while Rossi surmised that he was “very, very sad about this weekend, about result, about the race”.

Acknowledging that he is struggling with understeer in low-grip conditions with the 2017 M1 more than its predecessor, Rossi hopes one of Yamaha’s updates will offer a solution.

“For me, the main problem is that the bike has more understeer and after that the problem becomes very big for the rear tyre,” he said.

“At the end, the main problem is the rear traction, especially on the right, because already after 10 laps I was very very much in trouble and I had to slow down very much.

“I tried everything but anyway it was impossible to exit fast from the corner.

“But for me, coming more for the lack of turning that I feel with this bike from the first time that I try - and I always suffer, sometimes more, sometimes less.

“So for tomorrow [Monday] we have some stuff that is not the 2016 bike but maybe something that can be interesting for improve.”

The result drops drops Rossi to fifth in the championship, 28 points behind Vinales, whose lead over Ducati rider Dovizioso is down to seven points.

On the 2016 Yamaha, Tech 3 pair Johann Zarco and Jonas Folger finished fifth and sixth at Barcelona, seven seconds ahead of Rossi.

Having previously ruled out a switch back to the 2016 bike, Rossi re-iterated that the focus remained on improving the new M1.

“The old bike, under my point of view, turns better, and stresses less the rear tyre - and here like at Jerez they are faster than us,” he said of the Tech 3 rookies.

“We have to concentrate on the future because [on Monday] we'll have an important test and it's positive that we can make the test in this track, where we struggle.

“We hope to improve the speed and the feeling with the bike.”

Additional reporting by Oriol Puigdemont