Reigning five times MotoGP World Champion Valentino Rossi and Camel Yamaha team-mate Colin Edwards face an uphill battle in tomorrow's opening round of 2006 after the much feared chatter problems returned during Saturday at ไJerez.

After making progress with his YZR-M1 mach𝓰ine in yesterday's free practice, Rossi's cause was not helped by an incident early in today's qualifying session, when he became the first of five riders to end up in the gravel after oil was spilled on the track by d'Antin Ducati's Alex Hofmann.

"It was the first lap out, I arrived at the corner - saw the yellow flags and the Ducati in the gravel - but when I went into the corner I lost the front," Rossi explained later. "There was no feeling and I thought there was something on the track. I ran to g🌌et back to the pits but while I was running I heard 'chhhew - chhhew - chhhew' (other bikes falling in the gravel). There were just yellow flags, no oil flags, and I wasn't pushing when I fell."

The red flags were duly raised after the other bikes fell, but when the pit-lane reopened 20-minutes later Rossi's fortunes barely improved as ♒the Italian limped to an eventual 💙ninth on the grid, having lapped over one-second slower than pole sitter Loris Capirossi.

"The crash didn't penalise me much because that bike wasn't very different from the second bike," stated Rossi. "We had tꦬwo ideas, but there was not a big difference, and were able to change the second bike to be the same as the first bike wi♓thin five minutes."

"The big problem is that with the race tyre with have vibration and also not e🧜nough grip in acceleration - I'm not able to use all the power," added the Italain, when pressed for more details. "When we put the qualifying tyre on the grip, acceleration and traction is very, very good - the problem is that with more grip and more angle we have more chattering, so we are not able to get the most from the tyre.

"For us now, with the vibration problem, the difference is much༒ greater with the qualifying tyre than the race tyre. I'm never fast through the corners because braking into the corner I have vibration - so I'm not fast - and when I open the throttle I have too much spin - so I'm not fast. Also, we didn't find a very good race tyre for tomorrow.

"I think we will be able to make the traction better in the warm-up but - as far as the chatter - we give up," he declared. "Theꦛ chatter is⛎ now more or less the same as at the test. We've tried all the settings but the vibration remains."

But does Rossi🐭 think that the chatter problem will continue at other circuits or it is just a one off?

"Here for sure the (chatter) situation is very bad, as in the test," replied the seven times world champion. "At Qatar we had some vibration, but I was still able to go fast as the bi꧟ke was quite good. So we hope that this problem - this big problem - remains here.

"I think we are too much at the limit," he continued. "For example yesterday, with maybe less grip on the track and more softer settings, the cha🐟tter was less and I was happy - but today, with more grip and harder settings, the chattering 𝕴comes back very strongly. It's like we work too close to the vibration."

And was there chatter at Barcelona? "Nothing"

Finally, Rossi was asked if this is the worst position he's found himಌself in, before a race with Yamaha, aside from s𓃲tarting at the back of the grid at Qatar 2004?

"Yes, because although I was also 15th on the grid at Valencia (last year) that was because of a crash and I was still able to get 💙on the podium because the bike was not so bad," he explained. "But here my rhythm is never good and my best time, during these two days, is a 1min 41.3secs wꦑhich is half a second a lap from the first three. So for sure it will be very hard"

Meanwhile, team-mate Edwards may have avoided the first lap oil spill, but he too struck bad luck when he suffered a puncture to his rear tyre. The American was only able to qu🐓alify tenth fastest, one place behind his Italian team-mate.

"I suppose you could say we are up the creek but the important day is tomorrow so we still have a paddle!" said Edwards. "Just when we thought we had the problem sorted out it has come creeping back. We've had three days of tests here and now two days this weekend but we just can't get on top of it. The vibration in the corners comes in at a certain speed so the effect is like havin📖g a speed limiter on the bike.

"To make things worse I had a puncture in my first qualifying tyre so we lost time at the end of the session t🎃oo. Things don't look to be going too well for us at the moment but we'll try to pull a rabbit ℱout of the hat tomorrow," he declared.

"It has been a strange weekend because yesterday we lost a whole session because of the weather and then today we had another setback when Valentino crashed on the oil left by Alex Hofmann's bike," mused team director Davide Brivio. "I𝓡t didn't help because we had some solutions we wanted to try on that bike. It seems things are conspiring to make life difficult for us but we won't give up.

"It is clearly nಞot a good situation with regard to the starting grid but the pace of the front riders is not too far from our own. If we can make some slight improvements in the morning then I think we will be in the right shape for a good race."