British Grand Prix: Rivals surprised by Valentino Rossi’s slump

Casey Stoner, Marco Simoncelli and Jorge Lorenzo were all at a loss to explain Valentino Rossi’s surprise slump during qualifying for tomorrow’s British Grand Prix at Silverstone.

Rossi finished a massive 3.761s behind Stoner as the Italian found it difficult to improve corner entry grip with his factory Ducati GP11.

Stoner stormed to his fourth pole position in six races for Honda’s official factory team and he said: “It seems a bit strange because at the last races he’s been quite competitive, especially in the race.

“But he’s not been this far from the front. For me I’ve no understanding of what is going on but he doesn’t look comfortable and he doesn’t look to be pushing the bike so much.”

Rossi’s former factory Yamaha team-mate Jorge Lorenzo said he expected Rossi to be much closer to the front after he qualified his YZR-M1 machine in third position.

The reigning world champion 0.217s adrift of Aussie Stoner and he said: “In the first practice he was so far from the first position and I expected him to understand the track more and get closer to first position, but he didn’t. Watching on the video he doesn’t look comfortable and he is not riding easily.

“It seems he’s struggling and not feeling comfortable on the Ducati and I understand this feeling because in MotoGP when you don’t trust the bike and tyres you’re so slow.”

Rossi’s compatriot Simoncelli, who qualified on the front row for the fourth race in a row, added: “Sure it is strange to see Valentino Rossi down near the last position. It is difficult to understand the real situation but in the last few races he has been improving but on this track he doesn’t feel comfortable.”