Movistar Yamaha’s Valentino Rossi thinks that a podium is the best he can achieve in tomorrow’s Silverstone MotoGP as the tyre life problems the M1 has suffered all season are still hanging around.

The Italian surprised himself with a front-row grid slot in qualifying at the Northamptonshire circuit today but doesn’t believe he has tyre longeivity to challenge for a win as wheelspin remains an issue.

“It was a bit of a surprise because I was a little bit in trouble. Now we have to try to understand if we are able to improve, to make it better especially for the tyre life. Like it happened a lot of times this year at the beginning we are not so bad, but after we suffer a lot with the degradation,” said Rossi, speaking at the track.

“It will be very hard in the second part of the race. I hope to make a step to be competitive for the podium.”