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Struggling Rossi reveals cause for lack of Qatar pace

Valentino Rossi has put his lack of pace in the opening practice session of the Qatar MotoGP weekend down to a lack of feeling with his front tyre.

Valentino Rossi, Yamaha Factory Racing

Valentino Rossi, Yamaha Factory Racing

Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images

Valentino Rossi, Yamaha Factory Racing
Valentino Rossi, Yamaha Factory Racing
Valentino Rossi, Yamaha Factory Racing
Valentino Rossi, Yamaha Factory Racing
Valentino Rossi, Yamaha Factory Racing
Valentino Rossi, Yamaha Factory Racing
Maverick Viñales, Yamaha Factory Racing; Valentino Rossi, Yamaha Factory Racing

The seven-time premier class champion ended the first session of the new season in ninth place, 1.483s off the pace of new Yamaha teammate Maverick Vinales - who ended up almost six tenths clear of his nearest challenger, Honda's Marc Marquez.

It continued the trend established in pre-season testing, as Rossi trailed Vinales on the final day of the Qatar test and admitted to being “worried” about a lack of speed ahead of the season opener.

Explaining his lack of pace on Thursday, Rossi admitted he was struggling with the feeling of on Michelin’s 2017 tyres, which have a different profile and a larger contact patch than the 2016 rubber on which Rossi excelled.

“What I suffer from is, more than the bike, the front tyre from Michelin,” said Rossi. “Because they follow a way to the softer side, especially with the casing and also the rubber.

“I lose feeling, I have a lot of movement on [corner] entry, and I can’t carry enough speed.

“I said from the first time, it looks like the other riders like [them]. But these are the tyres, and we will try tomorrow.”

"Not fantastic" performance

Speaking about the session more generally, Rossi added: “My performance was not fantastic. I am in the top 10, this is good, because tomorrow we don’t know about the conditions.

"But at the end of practice we found something better that can help.

“With the soft tyre the grip improves a lot, so I can push more, I can do a bit better. But I was more worried about the medium tyre, which is the race choice.

“I don’t know, but maybe the modification of the setting can help also with the race tyres. We will see tomorrow, and hoping for good conditions.”

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