The Algarve International Circuit proved to be one of Yamaha’s weakest last season. Only Rossi’s new team-mate Franco Morbidelli on the ‘A-spec’ M1 was in decent shape.
After Rossi had his worst qualifying result to date in Qatar last time, he was unable to recover much in Portugal, as he qualified in 17th place 1.1 seconds slower than policeman Fabio Quartararo on identical Yamaha machines.
Rossi is believed to have performance criteria in his current contract that he must meet in 2021 before any talks with Yamaha about 2022 can begin. Rossi tries again to make a decision about his future after the first six or seven races of the season.
Rossi admits his pace is “nothing fantastic” in Portugal, while both Quartararo and Maverick Vinales – as well as Morbidelli – showed strong racing pace in RP4. Rossi admits his current situation is alarming.
“Yes, the two bikes of the works team with Quartararo and Vinales are stronger than me, they are faster,” he said when asked by Motorsport.com if his current form affects him. “So, yeah, my main concern is because I expected – and I want to try – to be more competitive.
“But the only way is to work and try, step by step, to improve a little bit.”
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Rossi says he’s a little faster this time in Portugal compared to 2020, but admits that it’s difficult to take big steps on the bike.
“It is very difficult to sincerely take a big step,” he added. “But every race track is different. I’m a little better here compared to the second race in Qatar, but I’m still not in the top group.
“I’m a bit faster than last year during training, but it’s still not enough to fight for good positions.
“So tomorrow it will be difficult to start from behind and my pace is not fantastic. But to warm up we can try something different and hope to be a little faster tomorrow. “