Valentino Rossi admitted that the British Grand Prix weekend was 'a disaster' throughout and that Ducati is struggling to resolve his problems.
The seven-time MotoGP champion's tough 2012 season got worse still at Silverstone, where he could only qualify 10th – 2.1sec off the pace and over a second adrift of teammate Nicky Hayden - and finish a lonely ninth.
"A very difficult weekend for us," Rossi said. "In the dry we were always very slow. Except for the first practice in the wet, the rest was a disaster."
Rossi had an exhaust issue in the race, but said there was much more to his disappointing performance than a technical problem.
"After three laps I'd broken a pipe so I also lost some performance, but the problem is not that," he said. "The problem is that we don't fix our problems and Silverstone remains a bad track for me, like last year. We have to work, we have to improve our pace and hope that in Assen we can be better."