After starting from sixth on the grid, Rossi's Michelin tyres began sliding as early as lap 7 of 22, and his performance deteriorated thereafter. The Italian superstar had never looked like troubling Stoner, who won from pole, but Rossi never imagined his race would turn out quite so bad.
The Fiat Yamaha rider was up to fifth by lap eight when the problems surfaced, after which a defenceless Rossi was overtaken by Rizla Suzuki's
Chris Vermeulen and then Ducati Marlboro's
Loris Capirossi. The Italian then clung desperately to seventh in the closing stages, eventually holding off Kawasaki's
Randy de Puniet by just half a second at the flag.
"We expected a difficult race today because we knew our potential here wasn't very high after the last two days. However it was even worse than we expected," confessed The Doctor, who had previously claimed that a strong race was possible. "I tried to keep my rhythm going but, after only seven or eight laps, the tyre started to slide a lot on the right side and from then on I wasn't able to open the throttle.
"Throughout the weekend we have done everything to try to find more traction," he continued. "We have changed the setting a lot to try to find a way to make the tyre work, but unfortunately during the race we had no grip. Also, with the setting we had to use, we had to sacrifice some of our corner speed and this also slowed us down. It was very difficult today. I was able to do 1min 59secs to start with but after a few laps the tyre made a big step down and then I just had to wait for the end of the race.
"I had a hard time with Capirossi at the start; in some parts I was faster than him but I couldn't overtake him because he was pulling away from me on the straights. Eventually I got past him but he stayed with me and I couldn't pull clear. I pushed as hard as I could; at that time I wasn't too fast but not too slow either, but after that my tyre was finished and then Vermeulen came, then Loris again... I am sad because I wasn't even able to try to fight with them today," he shrugged. "Towards the end I had to push at the limit to stay in front of de Puniet and luckily I managed, but we were a very long way from a good performance. I tried to change my style, to ride in a different way to help the situation, but it was no good."
Rossi, like his rivals, will remain at Brno to test on Monday and Tuesday - when a new engine featuring pneumatic valves is expected to be evaluated - but the former five times
MotoGP world champion, now staring down the barrel of his second title defeat in as many seasons, doesn't hold out much hope of a miracle turnaround.
"We have a test now but in reality our situation is quite bad and we have a few different problems to deal with," he said. "We will try to make the best of the next two days of work and to try to find something different for the next few races. We have to wait and see what we find, but for sure it's going to be very difficult. This is a very hard moment that we're in. We have six races to go and we just have to work as hard as we can to try to find a way to make some good results."
"It is very hard to find the right words to say about today," stated team director Davide Brivio. "We had a very difficult race with Valentino and we tried our best with what we had. We have to keep working now to improve our package and the situation we find ourselves in. We have two days of testing here and we will try some new engine parts as well as some new tyres. Of course we won't give up and we will be working very hard over the next two days. We'll be back to try again in Misano."
The new San Marino event, the first of six remaining rounds, will take place at a heavily modified Misano on September 2.
