Rossi "satisfied" with fifth but pleased with used tyre performance

Valentino Rossi moved to put his back of the grid penalty to the back of his mind and focus on the task at hand in Valencia. With his penalty upheld Rossi now needs to put all his attention into getting the most from the bike and getting through the field on Sunday.

Starting the weekend fifth fastest was a solid start for Rossi and afterwards it was his pace on the used tyre that left him feeling positive about the day.

“I’m quite happy, quite satisfied about this Friday because we start well from the morning and especially we work well during the practice and I was able to improve my lap time every exit and also with the used tyre, that here is very important considering the long race and the tyre slides a lot. Also we continue in a good direction in the afternoon and I was also more competitive than the morning – I was able to improve my lap time.

“We decide to work also with the hard tyres and I was strong, I felt good with the bike and I make some good lap times So can be an option for the race, especially because starting from last I have to go fast for 30 lap to try to recover. At the end we did a comparison with the soft, which is for sure a bit faster and easier, especially in the first laps.

“The difference is not so big, but you can go a bit faster, so we need to decide which way forward. But in general I’m happy because I ride well, I feel good with the bike and for the first day it is a good performance already with some good lap times. We’ll try to continue like this tomorrow.”

Rossi competed 39 laps throughout the day and it was interesting to see that in FP2 he split his runs into four segments. Starting from the back he’ll need to be able to make a fast start and ride aggressively from the beginning of the race. Spending time learning how the bike reacts in those conditions could be crucial for Rossi.