Disappointed again !

Valentino Rossi was at a loss to explain the tyre problems that he suffered in his disastrous Turkish Grand Prix.

The 28-year-old Italian led a Yamaha one-two in qualifying, but slipped back in the race to finish tenth – a result that saw his nine point advantage in the world championship turn into a ten point deficit to Casey Stoner – who won the race.

"We are very disappointed today because we had high expectations for this race,” said Rossi. “But instead we had some unexpected problems with the tyre and it's been a disaster for us.

Rossi lost the lead on the opening lap when he slid wide on the exit of turn 13, but instead of coming back at the Ducatis of Stoner and Loris Capirossi, he instead found himself falling down the field on his Michelins on a day when Bridgestone-shod bikes took eight of the top nine places.

“Something happened to it after some laps and I couldn't fulfil the potential we had here,” Rossi added. “We don't know the reason yet for the problem but now Michelin are trying to understand what happened.”

“The tyre started to lose all grip and I had to slow right down because I was quite scared. It felt like there was a big problem with the tyre and I had to go very carefully just to finish.”

The five-time world champion kept up his record of having never won at the Istanbul Park circuit, but at least he fared better than his team-mate Colin Edwards, who emerged bruised and battered after a first-lap pile-up that eliminated him, Dani Pedrosa and Olivier Jacque from the race.