Rossi worried by temperature issue

Temperatures reached 35 degrees celsius during today's Sachsenring race, causing Rossi's engine temperature to rise dramatically.

Last season he had a water pipe blow off due to the incredible temperatures at Laguna Seca, while at Valencia he again found his engine overheating and fell while trying to make up for the lack of power.

"The water temperature was 120 degrees, but it doesn't register after 120 so maybe it was even higher," Rossi said.

He then crashed while trying to pass Randy de Puniet, and although he was able to rejoin, the incident worsened his engine situation.

"It was a slow crash, but when the bike hit the gravel it bent the handlebar," Rossi explained.

"I tried to bend it back, but then with the engine running the water was getting even hotter so I had to stop the engine.

"It's a bad day especially because I have all the chance to have a good day. I expected to have a good race because with our Michelin we were able to do 30 laps at a good pace, but I lost time at the start, and then more behind de Puniet."

Although temperatures could potentially be even higher at Laguna Seca next week, Rossi joked that Yamaha had a plan to avoid a repeat of the overheating issue.

"We have another way to fix the problem," he said, "we start in front..."

Team boss Davide Brivio said Yamaha were aware of the temperature issue.

"Overheating is a problem we know we need to work on," Brivio told Italia1 television.

"Our engineers know about it, so we hope to find some solutions. We have some ideas on how to solve it, so we hope to be able to implement them.

"From here to Laguna Seca there's nothing we can do about it, but fortunately only 20-degree temperatures are expected there so not as hot as here."