Monster Energy factory Yamaha MotoGP rider Valentino Rossi admitted he was unhappy and disappointed after a rear tyre problem saw the Italian struggle to fourth place at Silverstone.

Starting from the middle of the front row, Rossi and many others expected ‘the Doctor’ to have the pace to challenge at the front of the race. After a solid start, Rossi found himself going backwards, and quickly.

Picked off by eventual race winner Alex Rins on the second lap, Rossi fell down to fourth on the seventh lap, where he would have a lonely race, coming home eleven seconds behind the front three and two second ahead of fifth placed Franco Morbidelli.

Rossi admitted he wasn’t happy with the result, pointing to a rear tyre that prevented him from showing his true potential.

“We are not happy; we are a little bit disappointed,” said the 40-year-old.

“We expected to be stronger today to fight for the podium because I started from the front row but in practice, I always had a good pace. I know that Marquez was a little bit faster, so I didn’t expect his battle with Rins, I wanted to make my race like Maverick as our pace in practice was very similar.

“But today, unfortunately, I was more in trouble with the rear grip and rear tyre. Already from the beginning my pace was not fantastic and I was not strong enough, not fast enough to stay with the top three.

“Also in the second half of the race I had to slow down a lot because the tyre damaged a lot so it was a difficult race because we arrived more optimistic about being stronger but in the end we suffered a bit too much.”

Rossi wasn’t the only one to complain about a rear tyre not performing as expected, with Cal Crutchlow and Jack Miller mentioning similar issues. When asked about the tyre problems, Rossi said: “My tyre was very, very damaged at the end like Cal [Crutchlow] and Jack [Miller], also Franco [Morbidelli] I think. For me I think it is more our problem.

“Unfortunately, compared to Maverick and Quartararo they had more rear grip so it looks like as today was hotter and I had more problems compared to Maverick.

“Yesterday Maverick did a lot of laps with this tyre and the pace was exactly the same for him today. Yesterday I was good, I was like Maverick, but I was in trouble. For me it is about us, we need to understand the way how to save the rear tyre more or to suffer less with it.”

Valentino Rossi will be one of a number of riders who will be back on track at the end of the week in Misano for a test, ahead of the next round in San Marino in two weeks time. Whilst not revealing what exactly he will be testing there, he believes it will be an important test for the 2020 M1.

“I don’t know exactly the programme, we will see at the next days in Misano, but it is an important test because there are two days,” he said.

“It is a great moment to continue the development of the 2020 bike because we have two days. I hope that Yamaha brings some good things for next year but also some improvements for this year for the last third of this season.”