A small mistake by Monster Energy Yamaha star Valentino Rossi proved costly, as the Italian will be forced to start Sundays Spanish Grand Prix down in thirteenth position, after missing the chance to compete in Q2.

Coming into Saturday, Rossi was on the outside looking in and after being one of fourteen riders to lap under the previous lap record, Rossi will’ve liked his chances of progressing further. However, after missing out on an automatic spot in Q2 by 0.041 in FP3 and then 0.072 in Q1, the Italian will start from the head of the fifth row in thirteenth place.

Despite the lowly position, Rossi wasn’t as downbeat as some may forgive him being.

“Today we improved a lot compared to yesterday,” said the 40-year-old.

“Yesterday was quite desperate because I wasn’t fast and also I didn’t feel good. Today we improved and in FP3 it was a good practice for me, because I had a good pace with the medium tyres, so they can be a race choice.”

The Italian said that he had good pace on the soft tyres, but ultimately bad luck with the timing from the red flag and then a mistake on the second soft proved costly.

“When I put the first soft on I was good, but unfortunately with the second softs I made a mistake and I lost quite a bit,” he said.

“I was third, so maybe I was a bit too early on track because we stopped for the red flag and we had a different strategy. With 37.4s I expected to stay in the top ten, but unfortunately at the end I exited from Q2 by some milliseconds. I think I was a bit unlucky.”