Monster Energy factory Yamaha rider Valentino Rossi has said he and his Yamaha team need to find the root cause of the issues with their bike, after he finished eighth in the German Grand Prix at the Sachsenring.

Starting from the fourth row, Rossi struggled for pace all weekend, never challenging the front-runners in qualifying or the race. When asked about his race, ‘the Doctor’ said: “Today I finished, but anyway was a very difficult race because I was never strong enough.

“For us this weekend was important, because last week in Assen in the race before the mistake I felt good with the bike, I was fast. So we had to confirm if we find the good feeling here in Sachsenring.

“Unfortunately, during the practice sometimes I have quite good pace, but anyway I was not fast enough. So we suffer, we continue to suffer, and we need to understand why.

“Last year these five races was the better part of my season, I was always very competitive and I did some podiums, but always good races.

“But this year, especially in the last four races, we suffer very, very much. So we need to analyse the data, we need to understand why, because I don’t feel good with the bike and I am a lot slower than last year.

“Today I am 20 seconds slower of my race of 2018. So, this is very difficult to understand, we need to find a way.”