Brivio blames wrong tyre choice

Rossi suggested after the race that the Michelins were simply inferior to Bridgstone's wet tyres, but Brivio believes the main problem was that Yamaha underestimated the conditions.

"The tyre we fitted on his bike in the wet was perhaps for drier conditions," he told Italia1 television.

"While the rain wasn't too heavy things were going well and our lap times were very good, but when the rain increased he couldn't defend himself anymore because he didn't have a suitable tyre. Another tyre was needed."

Brivio played down suggestions that Bridgestone had a clear advantage in the rain.

"I don't think so, but we'll analyse what happened in the technical meeting," he said.

"It was difficult to predict 20 minutes earlier how heavy the rain would have been. That's the initial analysis, but we still need to talk to Valentino and to Michelin."

Rossi's polesitting teammate Colin Edwards fell back into the pack at the start of the race then made a premature switch to wet tyres several laps before the rain started in earnest.

"Colin started badly, he had some grip problems," Brivio explained.

"When the track started to get slightly wet he was the first one stopping and trying to improve his situation.

"By going for a wet tyre, if the track washed out more quickly he would have been in a good situation. Unfortunately that didn't happened, and then he stopped twice."

Edwards eventually finished 12th and last of the classified finishers, having been lapped three times.