Valentino Rossi news: MotoGP star reveals reason for NIGHTMARE pre-season test

The MotoGP star was in the Far East trying out his new 2018 Yamaha bike.

But it was a miserable experience for the Italian superstar as he languished well down the fastest times list.

Rossi ended the Sepang testing with only the 12-fastest lap.

And when quizzed about what went wrong, he said: "We always suffer with the rear tyre and we are correlated to the rear tyre.

"For me the problem is that if we are able to go softer, you can go faster.

“Unfortunately I lose a part of the tyre, chunking, because the temperature of the tyre is too high”
Valentino Rossi

“But unfortunately I lose a part of the tyre, chunking, because the temperature of the tyre is too high.

"And after you have to go with the tyre that is a bit more hard. When the tyre is a bit more hard, you can arrive at the end of the race but you go more slow!

“So we worked a lot, but everything is correlated to the rear grip."

Rossi added: ”We don't improve a lot compared to last year, especially the electronics. So I think we have a lot of work and at this moment we have to struggle. But this is today. Maybe Qatar can be better.

"I spoke a lot with all the Japanese engineers and I tried to give all my feedback. I think the problem can be quite clear. But not easy to fix. Difficult.

For me in Qatar we need to wait to understand our potential on that track. But I don't think we will have something new. We have to think more about the future.

"Apart from that a lot of people are very competitive here. We need to concentrate and try the maximum."

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