Valentino Rossi is still chewing up front tyres at the Qatar MotoGP round and a decent result looks unlikely from his lowly qualifying position.

On Friday, the Monster Yamaha man set the first free practice timesheets on fire but has then struggled with the front Michelin as he has very little feel and is destroying them in a matter of laps - which the tyre firm say is down to setup and very high braking force.

“It looks like it is related to bike setup. The way he is riding, Valentino is braking very hard - almost as hard as Marc - quite aggressive, and you need a good balance to save the front tyre especially in this track is a problem,” said Michelin chief Piero Taramasso.

“With the sand on the track, with the humidity and low temperature, everyone struggle. If your setting is not perfect, you make graining on the tyre. He is not the only one. You have to do some more laps and it clean up.”

However, Rossi is not hopeful of any kind of a result from 14th on the grid.

“We are in trouble because I am quite slow, and I don’t have a good feeling on the front, and we also damage the tyre. It will be hard, it will be difficult,” said The Doctor.

“In general, I had a lot of problems at the front: I ruined the tyre and in the evening we’re in more trouble.

“We have improved the situation a bit, but it’s not enough, so it will be a difficult race, because I must start far back and on race pace we’re in trouble with the used tyre.”