Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP rider Valentino Rossi said that a mistake a turn three during his hot lap in qualifying cost him dear as the Italian could only manage a fourth row start for the Austrian Grand Prix at the Red Bull Ring.

After sitting outside the top ten overnight, the Italian managed to secure a spot directly into Q2 after jumping into the top ten in Q3, however, the former World Champion couldn’t capitalise on that, only managing to qualify on the fourth row in tenth place.

Rossi admitted to a mistake at turn three on his final hot lap, and he believes had he not made that, he could’ve been on the second row.

“I’m not very happy with my position, we expected more,” said the 40-year-old.

"My pace with the race tyre is quite good, especially this morning I was strong.

“In the afternoon I suffered more but also because we worked a lot with a setting and tyres that have a lot of laps.

“For the qualifying unfortunately on a good lap I made a mistake in some places, especially in turn three. You need to do the perfect lap because from P5 to P11, everybody is less than two tenths.”

Despite starting down on the fourth row, the Italian was relatively optimistic on his chances for a strong race. When asked what he thinks he can do from tenth place in the race, Rossi said: “Starting from the fourth row is not fantastic, I hoped to be on the second.

“But the pace is good, so I’m not so bad. If you take out Marquez and Dovi, they are faster, Maverick is a little bit faster than me. But we are very close, to six or seven riders.

“We need to try to make a good start and make the first corner in the best way. We need to work a little bit because I am not fantastic in sector three. So, we need to find something for tomorrow to be a bit better.

“We will wait for the conditions because the forecast for tonight is bad. It looks like tomorrow anyway will be dry and a bit colder so we will see.”