Valentino Rossi ready to ditch revised Ducati GP11 and revert back to old bike

Rossi qualified 16th for the German Grand Prix with only one rider - the returning Sylvain Guintoli - behind him. His deficit to poleman Casey Stoner was 1.6 seconds.

The seven-times world champion was impressed with the handling of the GP12 machine - which Ducati will field next year - in testing, prompting the Italian manufacturer to introduce a B-spec GP11, heavily-based on the 2012 bike, at Assen in June.

However, results have not been as predicted and after his poor German qualifying performance Rossi said he would favour a return to the bike he began the season with - and quickly.

"I don't know if we can use it before. I don't know if it is possible to have the old bike in Laguna Seca. We haven't decided yet," Rossi said.

"Unfortunately this bike is very difficult to ride with an 800cc engine. It was better with the 1000 [which will be used in the GP12] and I did some good lap times at Mugello and Jerez and it was for this reason that we tried to modify [it]. With the 800 I can't load the front and I am very slow.

"It was not so bad with the 1000cc engine but with the 800 it doesn't work well. We hope that with a better rear that the front would get better also. But that doesn't happen. One problem is with this engine we are not able to put the same load on the front than with the 1000cc engine.

"The problem is we don't understand why and we don't expect. Secondly, I think with the 1000 we had less problems because you have to use the bike in another way.

"With the 1000cc engine you make different lines and it was not so bad, but with the 800 you need better corner speed and you have more problems. For sure we expected to be faster and more competitive but it is not like this. We still don't understand everything."