Rossi: Yamaha had to risk new engine

The Italian had to retire from the San Marino Grand Prix when the new pneumatic valve Yamaha engine seized early in the race.

With his title rival Casey Stoner going on to take a third consecutive dominant victory, Rossi is now 85 points adrift in the championship with only four rounds remaining.

Rossi felt his race had been going well before the failure.

"I made a mistake in the first lap because I tried to keep up behind (John) Hopkins and Stoner but the tyre wasn't yet up to temperature so I was overtaken by (Chris) Vermeulen too but then we stabilized," he told Italia1 television.

"I was lapping at 1:35.2 and I could do a few tenths better but the engine broke. Under braking for the first corner it felt like seizing. Now they will look into it.

"The problem is that our bike isn't so quick so we must risk trying new technical solutions.

"We tried to use the engine that didn't give us any problems either at Brno nor here, and in fact the bike wasn't going so badly but it broke down."

He was particularly disappointed that the retirement came on home ground at Misano.

"Certainly this isn't the best of times," Rossi said.

"A podium here in Misano was what was needed, because by the way things are going we don't have the potential to fight for victory. There was a lot of people, we were in Italy, so it would have been important for everyone.

"I grew up ten kilometres from here, we like the track, we worked well in practice and I was always Stoner's main rival. We always have to chase them. We didn't need it, especially in the first laps.

"We are left with a lot of bitterness, I'm sorry for all the fans that came here, but that's how it goes now. While coming here on Thursday night a black cat crossed the road in front of me and it touched wood!"