UNDER the spotlight of Qatar Valentino Rossi struggled to a lowly 10th place at the MotoGP season opener.
Lining up on the grid as the last of the prototype machines, Rossi’s race did not see much improvement. After spending the early laps in 10th, the Italian was forced off the track by an aggressive pass by Hector Barbera and pushed back to 12th.
Off the pace and almost 34 seconds behind the leader, the seven time champion was promoted back to 10th after a retirement from Karel Abraham and a fading Ben Spies.
After the race a clearly frustrated Rossi told Italian website GPOne: "It is unrideable and it doesn’t matter what track you are on. I cannot enter the corners hard and we can’t hope the situation will change with the new Bridgestone tyres. These aren’t problems that can be solved with set-up alone."
Rossi appears to have lost faith in the Ducati Desmosedici GP12, as he added: "Ducati did not follow the route that I have indicated. I am not an engineer and I cannot solve every problem."
Click here for the official 2012 MotoGP schedule calendar dates
