Valentino Rossi has admitted it would take a miracle for him to win a MotoGP race this year due to the current state of the Yamaha M1, after ending the first day of free practice at Aragon ninth fastest, over a second behind Marc Marquez.

The Italian hasn’t won a race since Assen 2017, some 21 races ago. Rossi’s struggles are down largely down to that of the Yamaha. Neither Rossi nor his factory Yamaha teammate Maverick Vinales have found themselves on the top step of the podium this season.

Despite the factories best efforts, Rossi said that it would require a miracle to see a Yamaha rider winning in 2018.

“My job is not to say 'I need the V engine or modify the chassis in this way’,” said the nine-times World Champion.

“Barring a miracle, I don’t think we will win a race this year. But we are here to try and at least have some decent races. This is the situation; we need to be calm and hope for better in future.”

Today in Aragon was another tough Fridays work for ‘the Doctor’ as he ended over a second behind the fastest time of the day set by Marquez. When asked exactly what the issues were, he pinpointed the on going corner entry problem.

“[In Misano] at FP4 I was P6 or P7, one tenth from the top, and my pace was very strong,” he said.

“It was more or less the pace of Dovi in the race. But the next day, in the same conditions, Maverick and me lost 0.6-0.7, more than half-a-second. So this is the problem.

“And here is similar, but like I said, usually Misano is a good track for us. Here, also the track doesn't help us a lot. But it's like this. We have to try.

“The other problem we have is that when it becomes very hot in the afternoon, we suffer more than the others. It looks like the Ducatis don’t suffer."