Oil leak stifles Rossi progress

Valentino Rossi's chances of finishing higher up the MotoGP leaderboard at Brno were thwarted by an oil leak on his works Ducati.

Smoke could clearly be seen emanating from Rossi's Desmosedici during the race and although the issue did not affect engine performance, the Italian had to contend with oil leaking onto the footrests of the bike.

Rossi, who finished in seventh place, also experienced a loss of grip in the closing stages, which further impacted on his final result.

"I started well and the early laps weren't bad, although the bike started to lose oil right from the beginning," he said.

"It went on the footrests and the brake and shift levers which bothered me, as my feet were slipping everywhere.

"I probably could have done a bit better without that inconvenience, and maybe I would have finished close to [Andrea] Dovizioso.

"Anyway, I also had to slow down because the rear tyre began sliding too much after some laps, which has been our problem," he added.

"Now we'll see in the test at Misano in two days if we can manage to find something to help us in the last races."

Rossi and the Ducati team will test at Misano on Tuesday and Wednesday rather than staying in the Czech Republic to test with the remaining MotoGP teams and riders.

His team-mate, Nicky Hayden, will miss the test as he continues to recover from injury in the USA.

Hayden is expected to return for the San Marino round of the championship.