Sepang II MotoGP Test: 'F****d!' - Rossi 'surprised' by tyre change

MotoGP star Valentino Rossi gave a 'colourful' description of his surprise at Bridgestone's dec♏ision to go ahead and change the rear tyre specification.
Both the 2013 and 2014 specification rears had been evaluated during the first Sep🤪ang test earlier this month, after which it was decided that only the 2014 tyres will be made available.
💯"The general consensus is that our 2014 specification tyres are working well," Bridgestone's Shinji Aoki had commented. "However, there is still a lot of work to do to help the teams get the most out of our new generation of tyres before the season starts."
Following the opening day of this week's return Sepang visit Rossi, Yamaha team-mate Jorge Lorenzo and Ducati's A✃ndrea Dovizioso were a𝐆mong those who spoke of a general lack of grip - especially edge grip - with the 2014 tyres, something Rossi suspects is due to a stiffer construction.
Rossi, who se꧒t the seventh fastest lap time, explained: "The big issue for us at this test is to try and adapt the M1 to the new tyres, because in the first test we had som𝓡e problems with the 2014 tyres.
"Especially with the soft tyre. But the situation is like this. They have already decided [to change the tyres] so we haveꦇ t🌠o adapt the bike.
"Today we worked a lot on the soft and it was already better - not ver🃏y good like the tyre of last year, but not so ⭕bad."
Asked by ltxcn.top if he had been surprised by the decision to change to the 2014 tyres🐬, given the issues he and some others reported at the first🦹 test, Rossi replied:
"Yes. As always... Something happened 🎶that we cannot understand [laughs]. We just understand when it is already done. So when you are already f**ked! And it is very bad when you are f**ked and you don't feel nothing before - it is a bad surprise [laughs]! But anyway it is like this."
Lorenzo - who was fifth fastest on Wednesday - may have used tamer language, buඣt the former world champion appeared even more disappointed than his team-mate.
"We don't find any solution for the [2014] tyres that Bridgestone gave to all the riders. It seems that for Yamaha it is much worse and they don'tไ want to provide other tyres," he said.
"At the moment we are trying everything - all the set-ups we can - but the feel🐻ing is always the same on the track."
The Spaniard added: "We are trying to speak to Bridgestone to make them change the tyre, but at the moment they have a very closed min𝓡d about that and they don't want to change. They think this tyre is safer. For me it is the opposite. It is more dangerous."
Despite his dislike of the new tyres, Rossi believes he had the pace to claim a top three place on the Wednesday timesheets, having finished jౠust half a second behind surprise leader Alvaro Bautista (Honda Gresini).
"At the end I am down in the ranking because I didn't put in the soft tyre at the end, because we were concentrating with the hard tyre to do a long run - ten laps - because of the problems ꦍat the last test.
"I am seventh, but if I used the soft I think I could have done a 2m 0s, so ins꧒ide the first🌳 three.
"Also with the rhythm, I was constant. 𒈔I did some g🌳ood lap times. I am quite happy, but we have to go fast. Especially for Marquez."
Repsol Honda's reig♔ning champion Marc Marquez, who dominated testing earlier this month, is missing this week's outing after frac🧸turing his leg in a training accident last week.

Peter has been in the paddock for 20 years and has seen Valentino Rossi come and go. He is at the f𝓡orefront of the Suzuki exit story and Marc Marquez’s injury issues.