Sunday, 12 June 2011 18:16 by Alberto Cani

This was easily the worst weekend of the Rossi/Ducati relationship, and Valentino seems to think the responsibility should be shared between himself, the team and the bike. Here is what he had to say following the British Grand Prix:

“I'd say that the blame for this weekend should be divided equally in three parts: I'm still not able to ride the bike the way it needs to be ridden, and so I accept my 33%; the bike itself, especially in the dry, isn't as competitive as the Honda and Yamaha, so that is another 33%; and finally my team needs to work more effectively during the weekend, because we were slower than Hayden the entire time.  I was closer to the front this morning during the wet warm up session, but then in the race my bike was difficult to ride the entire time.  Nicky, on the other hand, was able to have a pretty good race, even setting the fastest lap, showing that the Ducati is at least competitive in the wet.  This means that his side of the garage did a better job than ours at sorting out the bike."

Do you think Nicky's team has an advantage because they have more experience with the bike?

"Familiarity with the bike is helpful, sure, because this bike reacts to changes in a slightly strange way, but we can't say that they were better only because they have more experience.  They were better, period.  Today, from the morning to the afternoon, Hayden cut 3-4 seconds from his lap times, while I was faster in the warm-up than in the race..."

Was your lack of track knowledge that much of a factor?

“In the end it was a handicap because it's hard to learn a difficult circuit on a bike that isn't setup well, but you can't say it's a huge disadvantage.  The problem is that we started the weekend far from the leaders, and we weren't able to resolve any problems the entire time."

Ducati are still working hard on the bike: will the updates help you improve your relationship with it?

“There won't be any radical changes; we need to sort out 2 or 3 things, and I hope to have these updates as soon as possible, even if they won't be ready before Mugello.  I can't say if they will be useful until I actually try them.  We have given specific indications to the factory, but only when we try them will we know if we have given them the right indications, and if Ducati were able to translate them into useful updates."

What happened with your crash this morning in the warm-up?

“I was improving on my best lap time by 1.5 seconds, but at a certain point I found De Puniet in the middle of the track and he slowed me down.  This made me a little upset, and I braked 5 meters late for the next corner, losing the front end.  Our bike was always on the limit in that corner, though."

Some riders crashed out of the race while pushing.  How much of a margin did you have?

“I tried to give the maximum, and at a certain point I was lapping around 2’24”, which wasn't a bad pace, but then when I tried to push further I had two or three moments.  To be honest it didn't seem like a good idea to take chances when the riders in front and behind me were both 10 seconds away.  From that point on I just tried to finish the race, also because I was having trouble keeping the tires up to temperature, so I always felt on edge."

Edwards and Simoncelli are both good friends of yours.  One scored a podium after a broken clavicle, the other crashed out.  What do you think of their performances?

“When I saw Colin on the podium I was genuinely happy for him.  He is a good friend and a really fun person.  I gave him my compliments during the cool-down lap, also because he had surgery just a few days ago!  Unfortunately Simoncelli made a mistake while he was running well: I think he needs to understand why he is making these mistakes, and that's it.  I'm sorry for him, but he is very fast so sooner or later his moment will come."