Silverstone News - Rossi Slow (Again)

Silverstone rolls around and 2011 slowcoach Valentino Rossi continues to prop up the end of the field reserved for the guys fighting for 6th through to 15th.

This weekend's excuses are continued rehabilitation of injuries, the Ducati's slowness, and Rossi's newness to Silverstone.

Rossi's lack of speed is now a real concern for those at Ducati, and for the legion of fans who consider him a god. Outqualified this weekend by Stoner by a whopping 3.7 seconds and by his team mate Hayden by 1.4 seconds.

Many must be starting to wonder just how slow Valentino really is when Hayden, perennially slow on the Ducati and never really able to get near Stoner when they were team mates, can thrash Rossi in qualifying.

Ducati designers must also be wondering just how good Stoner is to have been the only one to tame the Ducati, perhaps masking it's difficulties over the past years, something Rossi has not come even close to doing (yet).

Stoner fans (if there are any) will be hoping 3.7 seconds a lap translates into enough distance to stop Rossi spearing Stoner down the road again. Although with that sort of margin, perhaps Rossi will just wait until Stoner comes past to lap him before his customary bonzai attack.

If the weather doesn't interfere, it will be a battle between Stoner's outright speed, and Lorenzo's approach of making the best of his lot each week. The dark horse remains Simoncelli who must surely win a race soon. Let's hope his desperation doesn't turn him into a Rossi-like bowling ball knocking others down. We don't need two riders on the grid whose ambition outweighs their ability right now.