Valentino Rossi was at a loss to explain his lack of speed on Saturday afternoon after another lousy qualifying performance that left🍸 him 14th on the grid.

Like a disastrous home round at Mugello, Rossi’s efforts began to unravel toward the end of FP3 when a lap that comfortably plac꧋ed him inside the top ten was chalked off as he exceeded track limits on the exit of the final chicane.

Fr🐷om there, the Italian faced a task entering Q1. But despite Alex Rins being the only other big hitter in th♏e first 15-minute shootout, Rossi’s charge never got going.

He was unable to find comfort aboard his M1, particularly thr🌠ough Assen’s numerous fast changes of direction. In thꦫe end he will plot a charge through the field from the fifth row.

“This morning I was not so bad and especially I was able to make a very good lap at the end that was good for th▨e Q2,” said the 40-year old. But unfortunately I touch the green exit of the last chicane and th🌊ey cancelled the lap.

“But I was quite optimistic because with the speed of thꦫis morning I think that I have enough potential to go to Q2. But unfortunately in the afternoon I was more in trouble with more tem🌄perature and lose a lot of grip and I lose performance and I was quite slow so I wasn’t able to improve.

“So I have to start from quite back on the grid and also will be hard because anyway my pace is not fantastic, so fo𓄧r sure it will be a tough race.”

There were simi💟larities with Mugello again in that he struggled with the hotter afternoon temperatures after appearing more competitive in the co🤪oler morning.

This was puzzling when compared to the sheer speed of pole sitter Fabio Quartararo and team-mate Maverick Viñales, who start from firs♓t and second on the gr😼id.

When asked about his struggles compared to the two other Yamahas, Rossi was unsure. 💦“The problem is that we have just one good bike and one race is for me and one🏅 race for Maverick so this time is Maverick’s turn,” he quipped.

“Apart from the joke, I don’t know, Maverick and also Quartararo are very 🃏strong during this weekend, they are able to be ve𝔍ry fast.

“On the other side, me and Franco [Morbidelli] we suffer more, I don’t feel very comfortable with the bike. Also in the fast ✱par🍌t I am not fast enough and this makes everything more difficult.

“Now we have to see, we have to work this evening to understand if we are ablඣe to be a bit st𓆏ronger and after we see. But sincerely, we don’t know why.”