While Dani Pedrosa scorched to pole for tomorrow’s Catalan MotoGP and Marc Marquez crashed four times but still starts on row two, Yamaha’s factory riders Maverick Vinales and Valentino Rossi slumped to ninth and 13th with neither man able to find grip on any of Michelin’s tyre allocation.

“A nightmare” said Rossi.  The lack of grip on the track and the quick drop of the tyres compromised the qualifying and made the race even more complicated – especially given rookie Jonas Folger looked comfortable on his satellite M1 in eighth place and Jorge Lorenzo bagged second.

“On Friday, it was not so bad so I was confident because usually the conditions of the asphalt improves on the second day. On the contrary today the situation was much worse,” Rossi said at the track. “Already this morning it was more difficult. In the afternoon things went wore with the temperatures of the asphalt reaching 50°C. It was a real nightmare. I had no confidence either with the medium or with the hard tyre. The hard choice is a bit more consistent but they don’t have grip, while I think we cannot finish the race with the medium.”

Despite the situation, The Doctor still has some hope. “It’s still Saturday, we have some ideas and we will try to improve the pace. Taking the start from 13th place will be really difficult. The race will be tough for everybody. The tyre choice is open between medium and hard both front and rear. It’s strange how the conditions of the track got worst today.”

Vinales blames Michelin for the lack of performance. Rossi was more diplomatic. “This year it really strikes the difference of performance from one race to another. Just think, at Le Mans the bike worked well, the tyres as well. At Mugello we were fast, here we struggle a lot with the tyre. I think the matching bike-tyre changes a lot from circuit to circuit. I don’t want to blame one or the other.

“But I haven’t understood yet. At Le Mans you could do all kind of changes and everything worked perfectly. Here on the contrary nothing works despite all the solutions we test. I think, it’s more due to the asphalt because there is no grip,” concluded Rossi.

Vinales confirmed the same issues. “I never had so many problems with grip. Our bike moves so much, which is not normal. Other bikes on the contrary are stable. Marc crashed four times and this is also very strange. Tomorrow we will do a race in the survival mode.

“I will focus not to make the mistake. If possible we will try to finish in front of Dovizioso but I don’t know if it will be possible. We will try to gain as many points as possible. We will need to see the level of grip of the asphalt but we know that it will be very hot.

“I don’t have a good feeling with any tyre. I am trying to have a good corner speed and the bike slides. It is a strange situation because Yamaha has good records on this track. I don’t want to complain but it’s strange championship. Since Austin I’m repeating the same things: one race I struggle with the tyres, the following race weekend is Valentino, then Marquez.

“It’s difficult to fight for the championship in these conditions. A problem that we are having can cost you a lot of points. I don’t know what we can do to improve for the race. In the past races we could focus more on the bikes and not so much on the tyres.”